OTTAWA – The Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) is partnering with the Air Force Association’s (AFA) CyberPatriot program to bring cyber security competitions to schools across Canada.
Taking on the name CyberTitan, the partnership between AFA and ICTC will join the United Kingdom’s CyberCenturion in what is becoming a family of CyberPatriot-hosted cyber defense competitions. The competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services in a six hour period.
A team from Sisler Academy in Winnipeg was one of only 28 worldwide qualifying for the 2016 CyberPatriot National Finals Competition.
“We are excited to announce our partnership with the Air Force Association and introduce CyberTitan in Canada”, said ICTC president and CEO Namir Anani, in the news release. “With the increasing connectedness of devices and the Internet of Things, tooling youth with critical cyber security skills will prepare them for future career opportunities and will also increase their knowledge in how to protect their own, as well as, Canada’s digital assets.”
