Teams of budding IT security specialist have begun preparing for the European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC). The 150 winners from national competitions will gather for the final tournament, to be held in Málaga (Spain) from 30 October - 3 November. This year teams from 12 EU Member States and the EFTA countries Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland ar participating in the hacking contest.
In Austria, for example, the qualification to participate started on 8 May, and will run until the end of August. The country will select its team, the best 10 school students and 10 university students, at the final event in Villach. In Greece, registration of contenders for the national team ended Monday. Greece aims to send 10 participants to the finals in Málaga. In Liechtenstein the first meeting took place on 29 April.
The national cyber security competitions aim to attract students and university graduates but also non-ICT professionals. Contestants have to solve IT security related challenges involving the web, mobile computing devices, and the Internet of Things. They need to solve crypto puzzles, reverse engineering code and show their talents in IT forensics.
The annual competition is promoted by the European Commission, “to bring together young talent from across Europe to have fun and compete in an in-depth cyber security challenge event”. The aim is to find new and young cyber talents and encourage young people to pursue a career in cyber security, the EC explains on the ECSC website.
Registration for the conference in Malaga will open soon.