Facebook, Homeland Security Support NYU-Poly Cyber Security Week Hacking Competition
By Billy Gray September 25, 2013 2:00 am
reprintsThe future of New York City and International Internet security depends on the next generation of information technology professionals, and, to prove it, more than 10,000 students gathered on the Brooklyn campus of the Polytechnic Institute of New York University last week to participate in its September Cyber Security Week competition.
The hacking competition at NYU-Poly, sponsored by social media powerhouse Facebook, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Qualcomm and a host of other companies, was designed to showcase the talent of up-and-coming IT professionals while studying issues that could potentially impact broadband security. The company sponsorships help fund the cost of student travel and expenses associated with the competition.
The 10-year competition breaks the students up into more than 1,000 teams from across the globe. The September competition is a preliminary round for the students. Finalists will be invited back to the campus for a November wrap-up of the competition.
“Students who compete in the competition are given real-world examples of company and business server mock-ups for practice,” Julian Cohen, a technical adviser for the competition, said. “We give competitors a trace time line tool called Wireshark. It allows them to view network time sources. The goal is to understand the system, how languages are written and how it works.”
Students who participate in the November round of the competition will have access to a career fair with companies looking to hire IT professionals. Sponsoring companies will have an opportunity to recruit and retain talent from the competition.—
