Optus Business, La Trobe University, Cisco and Quantum Victoria have joined forces to launch Cyber Games, a competition designed to nurture the next generation of cyber-defenders – and help address the growing job demand in the security sector.
La Trobe University Vice-Chancellor Professor John Dewar said the Cyber Games initiative was part of a La Trobe commitment to provide students with the opportunities and skills they will need to work in cyber – “one of the world’s fastest-growing employment fields”.
Hailed by La Trobe as the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, the Cyber Games are designed to stimulate real world threat scenarios in an immersive “cyber gaming” environment.
“Students will defend a range of cyberattacks – including phishing, denial of service attacks, an email hack or all-out cyber warfare. New vulnerabilities and tougher challenges are added as the situation develops, allowing students to defend real world scenarios," Professor Dewar said.
{loadposition peter}“There’s a huge need for a new workforce of cyber defenders. This initiative will not only educate a new generation of cyber-literate students, it will also help close the gap of what looks set, to be a looming skills shortage.”
Victoria’s Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade Philip Dalidakis, officially launched the initiative in Melbourne on Thursday.
“With cybercrime rising at an astonishing rate in Australia, cyber security has never been more crucial to our economy as it is right now,” Minister Dalidakis said.
“La Trobe's new cyber security initiative for schools will help Victoria's next generation understand potential threats and build the skills they need to ensure they are well equipped to protect their personal privacy and our digital economy into the future.”
Under the programme, secondary students will be introduced to cyber through an online entry-level version of Cyber Games currently being developed by La Trobe and Quantum Victoria – a specialist science and mathematics centre - in association with Cisco.
Students who demonstrate an aptitude or interest in cyber will then progress to participating in the Cyber Games, an interactive competition between school teams to be the best defender against a range of simulated cyber-attacks.
“Optus and La Trobe University have a joint-commitment to build the skills of the future for the knowledge economy. Initiatives like Cyber Games deliver interactive and innovative learning opportunities in Cyber education and exciting game-changing ways in which we can connect and engage whilst creating pathways for our youth into the jobs of the future,” said John Paitaridis, managing director, Optus Business.
Paitaridis said Cisco’s industry standard Cyber Range Platform – a cyber attack simulator using real life scenarios that can progressively increase in complexity and difficulty – will be adapted for use in the Cyber Games competition to ensure a safe and controlled environment.