The Hardening: Manufacturing Cybersecurity & DevSecOps Hackathon

Hosted by Africa’s Talking Mozambique Community × MozCyber

🔒 Secure. Build. Defend. Innovate.

Join the Africa’s Talking Mozambique Community and MozCyber for The Hardening: Manufacturing Cybersecurity & DevSecOps Hackathon — a one-day cybersecurity-focused hackathon challenging developers, cybersecurity enthusiasts, DevOps engineers, QA professionals, students and technology enthusiasts to build secure digital solutions for the manufacturing industry.

Modern manufacturing is becoming increasingly connected. Factories now depend on cloud platforms, industrial IoT devices, APIs, connected equipment, digital supply chains and automated systems. While these technologies improve efficiency, they also introduce new cybersecurity risks.

This hackathon brings together cybersecurity and manufacturing to explore how secure software, DevSecOps and modern communication technologies can help protect the factories and digital infrastructure of the future.

Participants will identify manufacturing-related problems and develop practical solutions while applying cybersecurity principles throughout the Software Development Lifecycle.

🎯 Theme

Securing the Future of African Manufacturing

Teams will develop solutions addressing real-world manufacturing challenges while demonstrating secure engineering practices.

Projects may focus on:

• Smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0

• Industrial IoT and connected devices

• OT/ICS cybersecurity

• Factory access control

• Production monitoring

• Equipment and predictive maintenance

• Manufacturing supply-chain security

• Inventory and logistics

• Worker safety and emergency communication

• Secure procurement and payments

• Factory communication platforms

• Cybersecurity monitoring and incident response

🔐 Cybersecurity First

Cybersecurity is at the heart of the competition.

Teams will be expected to consider security from the beginning of the Software Development Lifecycle using Shift Left Security principles.

Projects should demonstrate appropriate measures such as:

• Secure authentication

• Authorization and access control

• Input validation

• Secure API design

• Protection of sensitive information

• Secret management

• Vulnerability identification and mitigation

• Dependency management

• Secure software supply chains

• Security testing

• Logging and monitoring

• Secure deployment

• Threat modelling and risk assessment

⚙️ DevSecOps Challenge

Participants will not only build applications — they will demonstrate how security can be integrated into the development and deployment process.

Teams may implement:

• CI/CD pipelines

• Automated security testing

• SAST

• DAST

• Software Composition Analysis

• Dependency scanning

• Secret scanning

• Docker containerization

• Infrastructure and deployment security

• Automated testing

• Secure cloud deployment

📡 Africa’s Talking Integration

Each project must use one or more Africa’s Talking APIs where relevant to the proposed solution.

Teams may integrate:

• SMS

• USSD

• Voice

• Airtime

• Payments

Examples include secure factory emergency notifications, worker communication, supplier communication, authentication workflows and other manufacturing-related use cases.

🏭 Challenge

Teams will be asked to solve a manufacturing-related problem while addressing its cybersecurity implications.

A successful project should answer three questions:

1. What manufacturing problem are you solving?

2. What cybersecurity risks does the solution face?

3. How does your solution prevent, detect or reduce those risks?

Teams are encouraged to think beyond traditional web applications and explore IoT, cloud, APIs, industrial systems, supply chains, communications and connected manufacturing environments.

🎯 Objectives

By participating, teams will:

• Gain practical cybersecurity experience.

• Understand cybersecurity challenges in modern manufacturing.

• Apply Shift Left Security principles.

• Develop secure digital solutions.

• Experience real-world DevSecOps practices.

• Integrate Africa’s Talking APIs.

• Implement automated security testing.

• Identify and mitigate vulnerabilities.

• Build and protect CI/CD pipelines.

• Understand software supply-chain security.

• Work with GitHub and collaborative development workflows.

• Receive guidance from cybersecurity and engineering mentors.

• Network with technology and industry professionals.

👥 Who Can Participate?

The hackathon is open to:

• University students

• Recent graduates

• Software developers

• Cybersecurity enthusiasts

• DevOps engineers

• QA engineers

• IT professionals

• IoT enthusiasts

• Technology students and innovators

Participants do not need to be manufacturing experts. The event is designed to bring together people with different technical backgrounds to explore cybersecurity challenges in the manufacturing sector.

🤝 What Participants Can Expect

• Practical cybersecurity challenges

• Manufacturing-focused problem solving

• DevSecOps workshops

• Africa’s Talking API workshops

• Cybersecurity and engineering mentorship

• GitHub collaboration

• CI/CD implementation

• Security testing

• Secure deployment practices

• Networking with industry professionals

• Career and talent opportunities

• Merchandise and sponsor awards

🕘 Event Schedule

09:00 – 09:25 — Check-in and repository access

09:25 – 09:50 — Opening: Rules, challenges and evaluation criteria

09:50 – 12:15 — Phase 1: Build & Secure

12:15 – 12:40 — Lunch & Networking

12:40 – 14:25 — Phase 2: DevSecOps & Pipeline Protection

14:25 – 14:50 — Phase 3: Code Freeze & Security Assessment

14:50 – 15:00 — Mentor/Jury Introduction

15:00 – 16:00 — Final Presentations & Awards

16:00 – 16:10 — Group Photo & Closing

💰 Prizes

Based on sponsorship involvement:

🥇 1st Place — $100

🥈 2nd Place — $50

🥉 3rd Place — $25

Additional prizes may be provided by event sponsors and industry partners.

🚀 Why Participate?

By the end of the hackathon, participants will have:

• Built a cybersecurity solution for a real-world manufacturing problem.

• Applied DevSecOps principles in practice.

• Used modern cybersecurity tools.

• Integrated Africa’s Talking APIs.

• Implemented security testing and CI/CD.

• Learned from cybersecurity and engineering mentors.

• Connected with technology and manufacturing professionals.

• Demonstrated their skills to potential employers.

🔗 Registration

Register here: https://forms.gle/2ATLSEqcgH4HPszLA

Build Secure. Defend Industry. Connect Africa.

The future of African manufacturing must be connected, but it must also be secure.