Registration for the annual student hacking competition hosted by the NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering is open to participants from around the globe.
The final phase of the Cyber Security Awareness Week ( CSAW ) competition will take place on November 13-15. It welcomes contestants from high schools and doctoral programs, who will have to compete in six qualifying rounds for a spot in the final.
The prizes will be scholarships and various awards. In addition to the six games, there is also the Capture the Flag , which aims to find ways to breach system security and intercept protected data. This is the most popular of the competition events, with a qualifying round taking place between September 19 and 21.
There is also a category for forensic analysis, intended for high school students, as well as a section for hardware hackers. In the announcement for registration for the event, organizers said that a new competition has been added, for public policy developed by students.
This year, Yahoo's Chief Information Security Officer, Mr. Alex Stamos (apparently of Greek descent), will provide the opening presentation, titled "Shaping the Future: Espionage, Cybercrime, and Your Career" on November 13, during the reception for the finalists.
According to the announcement from the university, last year's event attracted more than 15,000 students, which indicates that there is growing interest from participants.
This year’s competition is supported by a total of 20 organizations, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the gold sponsor. Yahoo is the silver sponsor (2nd) for the competition, while the list of bronze sponsors includes big names such as Facebook, the National Security Agency (NSA), NCC Group North America and Palantir.
Additional companies offering support include FireEye, Intel, Microsoft, MIT Lincoln Laboratory , and the United States Secret Service. It is worth noting that security services have a steady presence at security events and hacker competitions in particular.
