Wanted: Cyber Experts to Defend UK Online
26th July 2010: Leading higher education organisations are at the heart of the UK’s first national hunt for future cyber security professionals launching today in central London. The Cyber Security Challenge UK is a series of online and face-to-face competitions designed by leading universities (including The Open University, Royal Holloway, Queen’s University Belfast), security companies, trade bodies and government departments.
It is the UK’s response to a worrying shortage of skilled professionals in the cyber security sector, and the growing challenge of how to increase the resilience of the UK’s online presence with our existing human resources.
The Challenge will identify the most talented individuals across the UK education community capable of becoming our first line of defence against cyber attacks now and in the future. It will excite and inspire participants to consider a career as a cyber security professional.
More than 30 prizes are on offer for successful candidates. All have been selected for their ability to help winners progress education and career opportunities in the cyber security profession. They include
• Bursaries for university courses – eg £3,300 funding towards an MSc Electronics & Security, Queen's University, Belfast
• Places on top private-sector training courses – eg A two week placement on Detica Cyber Security Academy, places on Sans Institute training courses
• Access to professional expertise and resources – eg opportunities to use the CREST penetration testing rig
• Memberships of professional bodies – eg annual membership of the Institute of Information Security Professionals (IISP), the British Computer Society (BCS), and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA).
From this morning, anyone interested in cyber security can register online to participate in the 2010 Challenge and have a chance to be crowned the UK’s Cyber Security Champion at www.cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk.
The Open University is a founding sponsor. It got involved because it understands the value of academia and industry working in harmony to address national challenges says Kevin Streater, Executive Director - IT&Telecoms.
“The Cyber Security Challenge UK deals with issues spanning both education and technology. We see it as an excellent opportunity to continue our long-standing partnerships with industry to address the national challenges facing our workforce. Education institutions can only offer cutting edge skills to their students when they understand what the current challenges are, and the skills required by industry to address them. The Open University is committed to helping organisations to find innovative ways to deal with these skills gaps.”
The Challenge is being officially launched by The Rt Hon Baroness Neville-Jones, Minister for Security who said:
“Cyberspace is woven into the fabric of our society; it is integral to our economy, our communities and our security. Defending all of our interests in cyberspace is a relatively small cadre of talented and highly skilled public sector and private sector cyber security professionals. This pool of professionals must grow and the Cyber Security Challenge UK offers an innovative and exciting way of attracting talented individuals to take up rewarding careers in this field.”
The competitions
As part of the launch, two initial competitions are being unveiled. Each competition features:
1) A virtual competition where participants compete online
2) A face to face playoff for the most successful participants in the virtual stage.
The team or individual that performs best in the playoff will become the winner of that competition:
• QinetiQ Network Defence Competition: This competition utilises QinetiQ’s exceptional knowledge of network defence and its world-class modelling and virtualisation facilities. It involves teams reviewing, administering and defending a simulated network against attacks from cyber security professionals.
• SANS Institute and Sophos Treasure Hunt: The SANS Institute Security Treasure Hunt is an online game suitable for all ages and all levels of experience. Run on specific dates between September and December this year, and administered by a trained gamesmaster, participants will be challenged to identify security flaws on a dummy website and answer questions based on the issues they find. The competition takes the form of multiple choice questions allowing candidates to work at their own pace. Participants simply require a web browser; some creativity; and possibly some research on the Internet. The whole process takes less than two hours and the best six participants move through to the face to face stage being developed by Sophos.
Successful participants in each of these competitions will be invited to attend the Cyber Security Challenge UK Masterclass. This climax to the UK’s first Cyber Security Challenge is being developed by HP Labs and EADS Defence and Security as an opportunity to compete with, and against, other finalists from across the three competitions for a chance to be crowned the UK’s ultimate cyber security champion. The Masterclass will challenge candidates to demonstrate their technical, strategic, commercial, and interpersonal skills as they work in teams to cope with the challenges of managing and defending a business technology network in an accurately simulated commercial environment. They will face the same challenges a cyber security professional faces in the real commercial world.
In addition to these two competitions and the Masterclass, the Challenge will also be supporting the UK category of the Department for Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) Digital Forensics Challenge – which is running as part of the US Cyber Challenge. 22 UK teams are currently participating. The Challenge will be providing a prize for the winner of that category and will also invite the individuals from the winning team to participate in the Masterclass.
The Challenge is being sponsored by a broad group of renowned organisations in the fields of cyber security, education, industry and public sector. They include the Open University, Sophos, EADS Defence and Security, SANS Institute, Detica, QinetiQ and the Cabinet Office.
For more information please contact our media team:
[email protected] or Tel: 0845 680 1866.