Trend Micro Incorporated ( TYO: 4704 ; TSE: 4704 ), a global leader in cybersecurity solutions, along with Cyber Talents, today announced the holding of the 2019 UAE National Cybersecurity Capture the Flag (CTF) Competition slated on April 27 in Dubai. Now on its third consecutive run, the annual contest aims to support and enhance the practical skills of young IT and security professionals, thus presenting a real opportunity to better equip the industry with the skills it needs to combat modern online threats.
“Trend Micro recognizes the concerns that come with the growing cybersecurity workforce shortage around the world. This is why we are strengthening our commitment to bridge the digital skills gap by launching initiatives like the CTF that aim to foster critical skill development, not only to fill the shortage of cybersecurity professionals but elevate digital security learning as well through practical experience,” commented Fabio Picoli, Managing Director, Trend Micro, GCC.
Organized by Cyber Talents in cooperation with Trend Micro as strategic partner, the UAE National Cybersecurity CTF Competition is a cybersecurity contest where participants demonstrate their technical ability in cybersecurity field. The competition has two stages – the Qualification Stage (Online) and the Final Stage, which will be held in Dubai Internet City.
The online qualifier will be a ‘Jeopardy’ style contest where every team will have a list of challenges in different categories like Reverse Engineering, Web Security, Digital Forensics, Network Security and others. The top teams from the qualifier stage will then move forward to compete in the final stage, which will comprise a combination of ‘attack and defense’ as well as Jeopardy formats. For every challenge solved, the team will get a certain amount of points depending on the difficulty of the challenge. The top three teams who will get the highest scores at the end of the competition will be adjudged as winners and will advance to compete in the Arab Regional CTF, scheduled on 22 September 2019 in Egypt. From the regional finals, the top-placed team will compete globally and represent the whole Arab countries at Trend Micro Competition 2019 in Tokyo, Japan slated in November 2019.
Trend Micro revealed that the CTF has been successful in attracting the best young talents in cybersecurity. “In 2017 and 2018, the competition was so successful that we attracted a good number of universities across the UAE to participate. This year, we are working on preparing the best UAE team and empower them with practical skills in the most demanding areas of today’s cybersecurity landscape. Participants earn valuable real-world experience that can be used in job interviews and daily challenges faced in the workplace, so CTF is also a means for them to be noticed and recruited by cybersecurity companies ,” Picoli said.
According to a report from Gartner, the shortage of skilled security professionals has been a perennial problem that consistently results in failed security technology deployments. The report also revealed that number of unfilled cybersecurity roles is expected to grow to 1.5 million by the end of 2020.
“Security researchers and academics also benefit from the CTF competition as the findings generated through the challenges can be used as case studies to help model, predict and prevent real-world security incidents, as well as to develop solutions. We are confident that the skills learned in CTF will foster a better understanding of cybersecurity vulnerabilities so that we are well-prepared to effectively handle current and future challenges,” Picoli concluded.
