DALLAS, Oct. 23, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Trend Micro
Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in security
software, announced today its participation as a diamond sponsor of
Carnegie Mellon University's annual
"capture the flag" computer security game challenge, picoCTF2014.
Geared towards middle and high school students, Trend Micro's
participation demonstrates the company's commitment to educating
young people on safe and innovative ways computer security can be
used in our daily lives.
"We are honored and excited to be able to help cultivate the
next generation of cybersecurity professionals," said Lynette Owens, global director, Internet Safety
for Kids & Families Program, Trend Micro. "The contest is
designed to encourage an understanding of computer security among
students. We believe this is a critical part of promoting digital
literacy among our nation's youth."
The game consists of a series of challenges requiring
participants to reverse engineer, break, hack or decrypt a computer
to solve the challenge. Computers in the challenges are set up
specifically to be hacked, making it an excellent way to get
hands-on cybersecurity experience.
picoCTF is a collaboration of the Plaid Parliament of Pwning
(PPP) of Cylab and Team Daedalus of the Entertainment Technology
Center. Both teams are student-run and based at Carnegie Mellon
University.
The online competition enables students in middle school and
high school (6th - 12th grade) in the
United States to form teams of five or fewer students. Teams
must be associated with both a teacher/adviser and an academic
institution. With four levels that range from beginner to advanced,
the competition is ideal for students with a basic understanding
and background in computer science.
According to picoCTF, this year's challenge features a new
storyline in which participants are informed that their father has
disappeared under strange circumstances, and a flash drive is their
only clue to his whereabouts. Participants will need all of their
computer security skills to uncover and decipher critical evidence
before it is too late.
"We believe that our competition touches on the basic elements
of computer security," said David
Brumley, professor at Carnegie
Mellon and project lead for picoCTF. "Working in tandem with
Trend Micro has made it really exciting for the students to
know that they have an industry partner to help foster and
cultivate their interest in technology security."
The eligible teams will be able monitor their progress on a
scoreboard once the competition starts. The winning teams are those
with the highest score.
Winners will be announced within a week of the competition's
completion. The competition runs from October 27 to November 7. To learn more about
picoCTF and how to participate visit https://picoctf.com/.
Trend Micro's Commitment to the Internet Safety of Kids and
Families
To support its vision of making the world safe for
exchanging digital information, Trend Micro aspires to make a
difference by using its expertise to make the world at large a
better place. Trend Micro has made a commitment to make the
Internet a great place for young people around the world through
its world-wide employee volunteer program, grants and donations to
eligible organizations, and partnerships with those who share its
vision and mission. For Trend Micro's free Internet safety tips,
tools and advice, visit our Internet Safety for Kids and Families
page.
About Trend Micro
Trend Micro Incorporated, a global
leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for
exchanging digital information. Built on 26 years of experience,
our solutions for consumers, businesses and governments provide
layered data security to protect information on mobile devices,
endpoints, gateways, servers and the cloud. Trend Micro enables the
smart protection of information, with innovative security
technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an
evolving ecosystem. All of our solutions are powered by cloud-based
global threat intelligence, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection
Network™ infrastructure, and are supported by more than 1,200
threat experts around the globe. For more information, visit
TrendMicro.com.
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SOURCE Trend Micro Incorporated