What is the Cyber Security Challenge UK?

At the start of 2012, the Cyber Security Challenge UK will launch a social media and press stream of its hugely popular competitions. It’s an opportunity for those who regularly write, blog or tweet about major cyber-attacks to gain first-hand experience of what these looks like on the ground and how the professionals deal with them, using ultra-realistic simulations developed by leading UK cyber experts. As well as learning a huge amount about the industry, the competition provides an opportunity to demonstrate your coolness under pressure, leadership and teamwork skills against your fellow journalists and bloggers.

The Competitions

The competition consists of three different challenges taking place over three separate days at the beginning of next year (see dates below). Contestants will be placed into teams of up to five individuals supported by a technical expert from the company running that competition. Their role is to implement the decisions made by the team in the face of, or in preparation of, a major cyber-attack, and relay the impact of those decisions back to the group. As a result, the competitions are not a test of technical knowledge and open to people of all abilities.

Each competition will take a maximum of one hour to complete and will be run on the same day as the full version for candidates to ensure you also have an opportunity to watch candidates compete, interview them before and after, and talk to the cyber security leaders who have designed these challenges.

Whilst we encourage competitors to try and attend all three competitions, individual participants can change to accommodate those who cannot. A prize for the most successful team will be awarded at the Challenge Awards Ceremony in March.

Dates

• Competition 1 - Sophos Malware Hunt, 14th January, Sophos HQ, Abbingdon
• Competition 2 - SAIC’s King of the Hill, 21st January, PwC HQ, London
• Competition 3 - QinetiQ Network Defence, 10th February, QinetiQ HQ, Malvern

If you are interested in taking part in all or some of these competitions, please get in contact with the Challenge at the following address: media@cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk or you can register here.

On the below YouTube video candidates talk about their experiences of competing in the Cyber Security Challenge UK and the imapct it has on them, at a debate on cyber security careers.