Second Cyber Security Challenge launched

Winners will be awarded prizes to help them with educational opportunities and bursaries, internships and access to professional expertise

The second Cyber Security Challenge opened today with the aim of attracting and encouraging talented professionals into the UK IT security industry.

Those interested in taking part can apply to enter a series of cyber security challenges and a final master class to test participants' abilities to defend networks against real-world malware, using simulated business environments.

The first challenge consisted of three online games, which targeted network defences, forensics investigations and a treasure hunt, involving the identification of malicious code embedded in compromised web sites.

Winners will be awarded prizes to help them with educational opportunities and bursaries, internships and access to professional expertise, knowledge and networking opportunities.

Dan Summers, a postman from Wakefield, was the winner of the first Cyber Security Challenge UK. One of his prizes was a Computer Forensics and Investigations course with The Open University.

At the first Challenge finals, which took place last March, Judy Baker, Cyber Security Challenge UK director, said the competition aims to address skills shortages in the cyber security field.

"The idea started because of the skills shortage in cyber security," Baker said at the time. "It is clear that companies and government bodies are having huge problems finding the talent they need."

The first competition attracted 4,000 registrations. And this year's contest sees seven of the inaugural sponsors increasing their levels of support.

Cyber Security Challenge UK is a non-profit organisation supported by public- and private-sector organisations, as well as academic bodies, including the System Administration, Networking, and Security (SANS) Institute.

The SANS Institute was also behind research published at the launch of the first challenge, which found that most organisations were finding it difficult to recruit cyber security professionals, despite the fact that many thought the number of roles required to cope with attacks would increase over the coming years.