Trend Micro’s annual event builds security skills in the industry’s most critical areas of need
Trend Micro Incorporated, a global cybersecurity leader, announced the 7th annual global Capture the Flag competition. The Raimund Genes Cup empowers upcoming and established security professionals to hone and test their skills on the world stage.
The risk of cyber attacks continues to put pressure on organizations and CISOs who rely on skilled security professionals to protect corporate systems. However, according to a recent (ISC)2 study1, in 2020 there was an estimated shortage of over 3 million cybersecurity professionals globally. Trend Micro is passionate about bridging this gap and equipping more security professionals globally to meet this growing need.
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“Over the past year we’ve seen organizations around the globe struggle to cope with surging cybercrime as critical IT assets and end users become more distributed,” said Mike Gibson, vice president of customer success and security research for Trend Micro. “As skills shortages persist, it’s vital we encourage more to join the industry. Honoring the memory of our former CTO, the Trend Micro CTF – Raimund Genes Cup provides an ideal platform for the world’s best cyber talent to practice their skills and learn from new challenges.”
This year’s competition takes place over two rounds: an online qualifier and virtual finals event. The online qualifier will run over a 24-hour period from September 18-19 (Japan Standard Time). Teams of competitors will face Jeopardy-style questions to test their problem-solving skills.
The top 10 will qualify for the virtual finals, which will once again take place online on December 18-19, in the form of a Dynamic Jeopardy competition.
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Through both rounds of competition, teams will be tasked with problems in various critical areas of cybersecurity including IoT, mobile, AI, exploitation and OSINT.
The winning team from the finals will receive 1,000,000 Japanese Yen (approximately $9000 USD). Each player from the winning team will also receive 15,000 Zero Day Initiative Rewards Program points, to help earn exclusive awards and benefits. The second and third place teams receive 300,000 JPY and 200,000 JPY, ($2,600 USD and $1,800 USD respectively). In addition, the virtual final winners will automatically be seeded in the 2022 competition.
Over 700 teams from 66 countries competed in 2020 and demand is set to be similarly high for this year’s event.
Trend Micro is committed to encouraging more new talent into the industry with showcase events like CTF and Pwn2Own, and programs such as Close the Gap, which aims to support more gender diverse applicants as they search for new career opportunities. This approach is proven effective, with new researchers and engineers joining Trend Micro after participating in regional CTF events.
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