What do pepperoni pizza, cat memes and an online dojo have in common?
It turns out, these are all essential elements of a great cybersecurity hacking competition. And experts at Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University and Grand Canyon University all agree — such events are some of the best ways to prepare students to assume challenging jobs in the computer security sector.
Cybersecurity researchers from all four universities united to cohost the Capture the Flag Hacking Competition held on Saturday, April 5. Undergraduates enrolled in Arizona universities and community colleges convened on all four campuses and online, with nearly 400 students from across the state registered to participate and compete to win prizes, including an Amazon gift card valued at $1337.
Jackie LeFevers serves as associate director of research operations for the Center for Cybersecurity and Trusted Foundations, or CTF, a cybersecurity research and education group that is part of the ASU Global Security Initiative. With approximately 70 student researchers who are part of the center, CTF is located in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU.
She explains that the hacking competition is part of a cooperative, statewide strategy to both fill the jobs pipeline with well-qualified graduates and to continue to grow Arizona’s profile as a global hub for computer security.
“Capture the flag hacking competitions are a great way to gamify the process of increasing cybersecurity skills,” she says. “Forming a statewide competition puts a spotlight on Arizona as the place to be for cybersecurity education and careers.”
Even as threats to critical technical infrastructure continue to rise, the cybersecurity field has a well-documented shortage of workers, with an estimated 4.8 million unfilled jobs globally. About 500,000 of those vacancies are in the U.S.
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