Kaspersky organizes KIPS Championship for students

Global cybersecurity company Kaspersky announced its annual Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation (KIPS) competition. The international event, designed for students who are passionate about cybersecurity, offers participants the opportunity to receive a gamified experience managing cyberattacks of different formats. While the cybersecurity industry is growing rapidly, there is also an ongoing demand for more professionals working in the industry.

According to the latest 2022 Cybersecurity Workforce Study conducted by the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC)², the cybersecurity workforce gap has demonstrated a 26.2% YOY increase. Moreover, half of employees at organizations with workforce shortages feel that this leads to higher risks of cyberattack. Kaspersky believes that to tackle the gap, the industry should encourage more young people to enter into cybersecurity careers, and what’s more – to develop their skills accordingly.

In response to this demand Kaspersky has been working continuously to prepare students with more advanced cyberskills. The company has been organizing an annual international competition based on its Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation (KIPS), an online game designed to give young players a realistic idea of what happens during a cyberattack. They also learn how to design and manage an effective response to it, taking business performance and revenue into account.

During the gamified activities, team players get a unique opportunity to test their knowledge and skills in three completely different scenarios, simulating cyberattacks in several environments, each next step more sophisticated than the previous one. In 2021, 55 teams competed from 14 countries, including Algeria, Brazil, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Jordan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom. The winning team was from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM).

“KIPS is a well-renowned Kaspersky cybersecurity game played all over the world not only by cybersecurity specialists, but also by top managers and even diplomats. It provides a unique combination of gaming, training and an experience of cyberattacks, and we believe that it’s very important to engage young talent in these gamified activities. Together we can provide a young generation of advanced trained professionals who will join us very soon in building a safer future,” says Evgeniya Russkikh, Academic Affairs Group Manager at Kaspersky Academy.

The competition is open to student teams (4 to 6 people) representing one University, without age restrictions. Online registration closes on 10^th November 2022. The competition will be held online, with first stage organized on 17^th November 2022. Only half of the teams be invited to the second stage on 24^th November 2022. The finals will take place on 1^st December 2022.

The top three teams will receive awards based on their performance and results:

1^st prize: a gift card worth USD 500 and one license to train at the Kaspersky Online Cybersecurity Training Platform for each team member;
2^nd prize: a gift card worth USD 300 for each team member;
3^rd prize: a gift card worth USD 200 for each team member.

To learn more about the competition and to register, please follow the link.

For more information on the Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation on technical attribution, please follow the link.