Kaspersky Lab has unveiled an international competition aimed at solving topical cybersecurity challenges. The Talent Lab competition will see competitors use their technical and creative talents to solve these problems with winners getting a chance to receive education funding or sent to the most acclaimed global industry events – such as the Cannes Lions and the Security Analyst Summit (SAS).
The competition will identify three winners: the winner of the ‘top talent’ prize will receive a $10,000 grant for further education; the ‘security talent’ winner will be invited to SAS 2017 with all expenses covered by Kaspersky Lab; and ‘the creativity talent’ winner will get the chance to participate at the Cannes Lions 2017 with an academy pass and travel tickets covered by Kaspersky Lab. All of the 50 finalists will get additional prizes and souvenirs from Kaspersky Lab and Talent Lab’s partners, professional coaching from experts, and long-term career opportunities.
“For me, security has always been the most interesting aspect of computer science. No matter what I was doing, security would come out on top as one of the main issues to care about”, says Ryan Naraine, Head of Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team in North America. “But routes into this profession are often very difficult and many of our top researchers have no formal security education, but got here mainly because they were driven by their curiosity. With this contest, we want to spark the curiosity of as many people as possible, and show how many different ways there are to get into the cybersecurity industry. We want to demonstrate that security is fascinating – because the world needs more highly skilled people in IT security.”
The technical judging criteria of Talent Lab will include practical tasks in areas such as anti-malware research, cybersecurity solutions development, mobile security, cyber-physical systems, Internet of Things, kids’ online security and security awareness. Non-technical assessments require participants to work on challenges in consumer marketing, web content analysis, conceptual design, and edutainment. All areas will be mentored by Kaspersky Lab’s experts.
Online submissions are now open at academy.kaspersky.com/talentlab for applicants from all countries and entries will remain open until 15th November 2016. Applications can be individuals or teams. The programme will include an online evaluation period, between 15th and 30th November, with finalists being announced on 1st December. The top 50 most successful participants will be entered into the final, which will take place in Prague (Czech Republic) in February 2017, when they will have the opportunity to present their projects and compete for the main prizes.
