Cyber Security Challenge Nears Climax

The 2010 Cyber Security Challenge UK is nearing the finishing line, with the last qualifying event concluding over the weekend.

The Sophos and SANS Institute Treasure Hunt final was won by Simon Walker, a software consultant from Tring, Hertfordshire, with second place taken by IT support worker Alan Steer and RAF engineering officer Jack Dipper taking third place.

Final event

The event saw 25 competitors competing to solve real-world malware challenges.

All three will head to the final event, called The Masterclass, to be held at HP Labs in Bristol on 5 March, along with winners and runners-up of the other two qualifying events.

The Cyber Security Challenge was launched at the end of July 2010 and began registration for three events: the Treasure Hunt; the QinetiQ Network Defence competition; and the US Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center (DC3) Digital Forensics Challenge.

The event is based on a similar challenge in the US and was created in response to a growing shortage of qualified security professionals in the UK.

All the winners and runners up will be awarded prizes related to career-building and education, including internships, opportunities with leading companies, bursaries at universities and training from the SANS Institute and 7Safe.

Training

The first event, in December, was won by a jobbing actor with ‘intellectual curiosity’ about computer security.

A group of sixth formers were among the winners of the the second round of the challenge in early January. The sixth formers won the small networks contest, part of the Network Defence stage of the contest, held at Qinetiq’s secure headquarters in Farnborough, just as the OECD warned that a war fought entirely in cyberspace is unlikely but governments must nevertheless be prepared.