Cybersecurity competitionCSAW winners to be announced Friday

NYU-Poly's CSAW winners to be announced at week's end // Source: bleacherreport.com

Cyber security is capturing the attention of a growing number of high school students, judging by the record participation in Polytechnic Institute of New York University’s annual Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) challenges.

More than 150 high school teams competed in the preliminary rounds of the CSAW High School Cyber Forensics Challenge that will culminate this Friday, 11 November, with thirteen finalists vying for scholarships and cash prizes for their schools’ science programs on the Brooklyn campus of Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly).

In another measure of high school students’ increasing interest in the cyber security field, fully 17 percent of the teams participating in the early rounds of CSAW’s internationally renowned Capture the Flag Applications Security Challenge comprised high school students. That hacking competition draws even professionals in the early rounds.

“Educators have long recognized that the shortage of engineers, scientists and mathematicians does not start in the hallways of universities — young people need to learn about the excitement and opportunities of these subjects in primary and secondary schools,” said Nasir Memon, head of NYU-Poly’s cyber security program. “Our NYU-Poly students, working with security professionals, design the CSAW challenges to be fun and appealing to students while preparing them for the rigorous theoretical and practical problems they will someday need to solve. With events like CSAW, we hope to encourage them to stay on this path through their university years.”

Of the thirteen finalist teams that will compete in the forensics challenge at NYU-Poly Friday, two consisted of a single student each. Two schools fielded two teams each that were strong enough to make it to the finals. Nearly half the finalists will come from New Jersey — which may come in handy because the forensics challenge they will try to solve is a murder mystery inspired by the television series Jersey Shore.

President Barack Obama has declared the shortage of highly trained cyber security professionals a threat to national and global security. Similarly, NYU-Poly’s Memon said that police have reported severe backlogs in their digital investigations.

“Nearly every criminal investigation today involves a computer, a mobile phone, data transmission or some other digital element,” he said. “The finalists in these CSAW competitions could someday become real-life CSI investigators, or they might create the technology to make those investigators more productive.”

The difficult challenges and the final round of competitions encourage students to build networks with others in the field to help keep abreast of the fast-changing knowledge base.

As part of CSAW, the high school students will interact with professors and well known professionals who serve as judges. Peiter Zatko, a DARPA program manager who became famous among hackers as “Mudge,” will keynote Thursday night’s welcome meeting, and Don Proctor, Cisco senior vice president and leader of its Cybersecurity Task Force, will keynote Friday’s award ceremony. High school finalists may also apply for internships during a career fair that will include top employers of cyber security talent.