Friday
8th March 2013 - Tomorrow 40 of the country’s most talented amateur
cyber defenders will compete in a brand new HP and Cassidian CyberSecurity
motor-racing themed challenge to become the next UK Cyber Security Champion.
Professional cyber teams from HP and Cassidian CyberSecurity have designed a
unique challenge based on a high-profile Formula 1 race to put competitors
through their paces in Bristol on Saturday.
The
Cyber Security Challenge UK began in 2010 as a series of national competitions
aiming to find talented people for the increasing number of job opportunities in
cyber security. Now in its third year, the Challenge has broadened its scope to
act as a source of advice, support and guidance for anyone interested in the
profession. It is currently backed by over 50 organisations from across the
cyber security landscape that contribute approximately £100,000 of career
enabling prizes each year to candidates.
Candidates arriving in Bristol this weekend have battled
through simulated malware and malicious code from hostile states and
‘Stuxnet-like’ attacks on high security facilities to secure their place in the
Masterclass grand finale. Orange and Prodrive, SANS Institute, QinetiQ and
Sophos were all behind unique face-to-face competitions that took place in late
2012 and early 2013.
For the final, cyber security professionals at HP and
Cassidian CyberSecurity have worked together to create an ultra-realistic cyber
defence competition set during the weekend of a high-profile Formula 1
race.
The
competition will comprise both technical and policy issues in order to expose
candidates to the types of challenges they would face as cyber security
professionals.
The technical component of the 2013 Masterclass will take place
on a cyber range platform, custom-built by Cassidian CyberSecurity. Competitors
will assume the roles of analysts and investigators within an Incident Response
Team working on behalf of F1 Widgets, a fictitious small to medium-sized
enterprise (SME) that supplies on-board diagnostic equipment for Formula 1 cars.
The equipment enables diagnostic and operational communication between the pit
crew and engine management system in the car. This means that any
vulnerabilities or compromise associated with the device could adversely impact
the safety and security of the race.
In the lead up to the race a
customer of F1 Widgets suspects that their equipment has been tampered with.
Accordingly, competitors will be responsible for conducting an investigation
into F1 Widget’s IT infrastructure to determine whether or not a security breach
has occurred.
The second half of the
Masterclass has been developed by HP and will focus on the security policy in
place at a Formula 1 organisation. Candidates will be tasked with reviewing
current policies across the entire lifecycle of departments in the lead up to a
race and identify any potential vulnerabilities.
Following both the technical and
policy challenges, candidates must present recommendations as to whether or not
the race should proceed and improvements that could be made in
future.
Candidates will take part in an
intense day of competition on Saturday 9th March and an awards
ceremony will take place on Sunday 10th March where the Cyber
Security Challenge UK Champion 2013 will be announced.
Quotes
“In 2011 Cassidian delivered the
Event Management Room for the 2011 Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix race ensuring
the security of all events around the race. We understand that cyber security is a growing issue in all fields where
success depends both on protecting the intellectual property (IP) of the
product, in this case the car, and also the privacy of communications, such as
information relayed between the F1 team during races, vital to performance on
the track. We chose to test Masterclass finalists using this theme to provide an
accurate representation of what cyber security professionals are up against on a
daily basis” explains Roy Matthews, Cassidian’s Cyber Defence
Lead. “Success in the Masterclass will be dependent on an individual’s
ability to work effectively within a team to identify solutions to the technical
and policy challenges.”
“Cyber
defence skills are not solely based on technical aptitude. In the real-world,
cyber security professionals need to have an awareness of wider
business-to-business security and risk analysis, with the ability to understand
how risks can impact the entire supply chain. The aim of our policy challenge is
to get candidates to consider how much risk you accept before you expose
the organisation to real danger or how secure you
need to be before you run over budget or impede the operations of the team.”
Says Jonathan Bathurst, Cyber Lead, UK Public Sector, HP Enterprise
Services. “This is the third Masterclass HP has been proud to host,
and is a demonstration of our commitment to improving the UK’s IT cyber security
skills and boosting employment in our dynamic IT sector
generally.”
“The Challenge is committed to
supporting people to develop the skills needed for successful careers in cyber
security – Masterclass is the ultimate platform for this to happen. By working
with leading industry members like HP and Cassidian CyberSecurity we can enable
all finalists to understand the realities of working in this exciting and hugely
rewarding industry.” Says Stephanie Daman, CEO, Cyber Security Challenge
UK.
Ends
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