Trend Micro to Bridge Cybersecurity Skills Gap with Global Competition

There is a growing need for cybersecurity professionals globally, and young professionals need practical experience to hone the skills required to fill this void. Trend Micro Inc. recognizes this need, and recently hosted its third annual Capture the Flag competition to support critical skill development by solving real-world cybersecurity challenges.

This year's competition was won by team Egfr33ks who successfully deciphered challenges that tested players' skills in various categories, such as targeted attacks, Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA).

According to a report from Gartner, 59 percent of surveyed companies have an urgent need for a security analyst and "the unemployment rate for cybersecurity professionals is zero." Trend Micro's 2017 Capture the Flag -- Raimund Genes Cup aims to empower young professionals with practical skills in the most demanding areas of today's cybersecurity landscape. Players earn valuable real-world experience that can be used in job interviews and daily challenges faced in the workplace.

"We want to help decrease the skills shortage that impacts organizations globally, as well as continuing to make the world safer for the exchange of digital information," said Eva Chen, CEO, Trend Micro. "The challenges posed in this competition represent the future of the cybersecurity landscape. We hope the skills learned here will be used to protect internet users from the greatest areas of emerging threats."

In this year's Capture the Flag, 1,431 teams from 91 countries participated in the online qualifier in June, with the top 10 teams moving on to the finals in Tokyo, Japan. There were 22 teams from Hong Kong to participate in the online qualifier and the best result was achieved by team "vxrl" who finished 104th.

The winning team "Egfr33ks" received 1,000,000JPY (nearly 10,000USD) as prize money, automatic qualification for the HITCON CTF 2017 final, and 15,000 Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) reward points, which enable vulnerability researchers to earn more rewards when submitting to the ZDI program.