The do-good hackers were indeed engaged in a serious race against the clock to solve the simulated hack, but the real prize was a chance to be identified as as undiscovered genius and potential hero some day in defending queen and country against a future, real cyberattack.
There were also potential job offers on the line.
That was the goal of Cyber Security Challenge UK on Saturday, one of a series of inspirational competitions designed to find the next digital genius to defend Britain against devastating cyberattacks whose crimes cost the global economy an estimated $400 billion annually, according to a recent report.
On Wednesday, the UK government also warned that a third of the country’s small- and medium-sized companies are vulnerable to losing valuable data and customers to hacking. Those firms mistakenly believe in cybersecurity “myths” that hacking isn’t likely to happen to them, the government’s Cyber Streetwise campaign said.
In all, 24 contestants who were largely self-taught hackers raced against a clock in an exercise to restore power to London’s BT Tower, which had been shut down and taken over by cyberterrorists. Last weekend’s simulated attack was sponsored by the National Crime Agency, defense contractor Raytheon and UK telecommunications giant BT.
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About 19,000 people in the UK registered to participate in the challenge. But only 3,000 of them are selected for the annual event, and from that pool, about 100 are selected to take part in one of four cyberattack simulations, such as the mock attack on the BT Tower on Saturday.
Even if a contestant doesn’t win or make it to the final round, 80 to 100 code breakers are hired every year by companies that use the competition as a recruiting ground, organizers said.
For their efforts and as a possible item on their resumes, every contestant receives a certificate of having participated in the “face-to-face” competition against the fictional cyberterrorists.
CNN’s Kellie Morgan contributed from London. Michael Martinez wrote from Los Angeles.
