The vulnerability of parcel lockers was investigated in a hackathon event

We gave the cybersecurity students of the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk) a very interesting task in a hackathon held at Xamk's Kotka campus in May. The students' goal was to investigate the vulnerability of Posti's parcel lockers and find ways to access the data in the information system.

Testing the students' hacking skills

During the two days, the students explored ways to hack into Posti's parcel lockers and at the same time improve the security of the lockers. The event gave them a great opportunity to study both the functionality of the code locks on the lockers and the data collection using external sources and microchips.

A dozen students took part and tested, explored and tried out their own skills in the project. So what did the students find out? Unfortunately, we can't tell you because of the secrecy of the project, but the benefits were mutual and both Posti and the students gained new insights from the event.

Useful findings

Our Chief Information Security Officer, Iikka Salmela, attended the event and sees the benefits of the student collaboration in his own work. "I am excited to see how we can use the findings of the hackathon to better secure the mail that passes through us". Salmela says that the student partnership adds another layer of regular security testing. Kimmo Kääriäinen, lecturer in cybersecurity at Xamk, also considered the event a great success. "The students were able to try out a real-life environment to test out vulnerability scanning, using a variety of penetration testing tools. This is the kind of creative problem solving where almost everyone has a slightly different perspective, and that is what makes these types of events special experiences. Not forgetting the teamwork and interpersonal skills", Kääriäinen says.