Cybersecurity is a fast-growing industry and qualified cybersecurity professionals are in strong demand.
A 2017 cybersecurity jobs report by Cybersecurity Ventures stated that the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs globally is expected to reach 3.5 million by 2021.
The situation in Singapore is no different. According to SGSME, there is high demand for Technical IT specialists in areas such as data analytics and cybersecurity, with jobs expected to grow by about 33,400 from 2017 to 2019.
“Many of the hottest jobs in tech now did not even exist 10 years ago,” said Mr Saw Ken Wye, Chairman of SGTECH and Co-chair of the Cybersecurity Awareness Alliance.
“The competition for talent is not limited only to Singapore – it’s worldwide,” he added.
To attract more talents to the cybersecurity field, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) is organising the second edition of the Cybersecurity Challenge Singapore this year.
Mr Selwyn Sean Scharnhorst, Director (Ecosystem Development) at CSA, said “We want to grow and strengthen Singapore’s cybersecurity workforce and attract the right kind of people; people who are sharp, innovative and passionate.”
“The Cybersecurity Challenge Singapore is organised to achieve that. It will help us spot talent. For those who are not in the industry or who do not yet have the necessary qualifications, this is an opportunity to kick-start their cybersecurity career.”
Play A Game, Kickstart A Career In Cybersecurity
The Challenge consists of three stages. First, the online qualifying stage that is CyPhinx, followed by the Face-to-Face (F2F) competition, and lastly, the Masterclass Final in London.
In the first stage of the Challenge, players are required to play the games available on the Singapore floor in CyPhinx, a Massive Multiplayer Online Game (MMOG) which was developed by the Cyber Security Challenge UK.
CyPhinx is a virtual skyscraper where you can create an avatar, interact with like-minded cybersecurity enthusiasts, and demonstrate your cybersecurity skills and knowledge in the game challenges. It is a MMOG after all, so you can expect fellow players milling about this virtual building.
The four game challenges available on the Singapore floor – ‘The Enemy Within’, ‘Cyber-Tent’, ‘Whitehatters Webapp’ and ‘Pen-Ding’ – will test you on areas such as forensics analysis, vulnerability assessment, and network security. Your goal is to solve all the game challenges to achieve the maximum score.
Here’s a brief description of the games:
- The Enemy Within: The aim of the challenge is to identify the means by which an insider may accidentally or maliciously leak organisational secrets via seemingly innocent files.
- Cyber-Tent: You play the role of an incident responder. You have captured some traffic containing malicious scripts and suspicious files and have to solve the case by decrypting the traffic.
- Pen-Ding: You play the role of cyber forensics officer. You have been passed an image of a USB Pen Drive that belonged to a suspect. Your job is to perform forensics analysis to find useful information about the case.
- Whitehatters Webapp’: You play the role of a cyber analyst and IT administrator. A particular website has been compromised and a malicious PHP file was uploaded by the attacker. Your job is to perform code review to identify the problem.
Top-scoring CyPhinx players will be invited to compete in the second stage of the Challenge, the F2F competition co-hosted by CSA and BAE Systems, during the Singapore International Cyber Week on 19 September 2018.
Finally, top six players from the F2F competition will win career-enabling prizes like cybersecurity courses and a trip to London to participate in the Masterclass Final alongside fellow enthusiasts from the UK!
What’s great about the Challenge is that anyone who is a Singaporean or Permanent Resident and currently not in the cybersecurity field can take part. The qualifying period for the Cybersecurity Challenge SG 2018 ends on 1 August 2018.
Take part in the Challenge today! To enter, register an account with the prefix “SG” (e.g. SGJohnTan) and download CyPhinx here.
This article was written in collaboration with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore.
Featured Image Credit: Cyber Security Agency of Singapore
