King Saud University has announced its collaboration with global security specialist Northrop Grumman for CyberArabia – the third annual cyber security seminar intended to drive innovation among Saudi university students.
CyberArabia incorporates hands-on workshops, in addition to a competition challenging students to find and eradicate vulnerabilities in the virtual images of common operating systems. Not only must the students put their cyber security skills to the test; they must do so in a limited amount of time.
The objective here is to reinforce the core fundamentals of leadership, collaboration, teamwork and communication. Only those that work best together to quickly identify potential weak points and shore up their systems will be successful.
Crucially, all of this forms part of Northrop Grumman’s global commitment to furthering cyber education and workforce development at a time when both are in desperate need.
“We are delighted to partner with King Saud University for the third consecutive year to host the CyberArabia competition,” Walid Abukhaled, Chief Executive of Northrop Grumman Middle East. “Each year we witness outstanding and talented students, men and women alike, from across the Kingdom come together to put their skills to the test. While the competition is fun, the importance of building cyber skills is quite serious and important to the Kingdom.”
Commenting on the collaboration, Dr Jalal Al-Muhtadi – Director of the Centre of Excellence in Information Assurance at King Saud University – said: “It is an honour to host the CyberArabia competition. Events such as this help to build a foundation among the students in the field of engineering and technology and create awareness about cyber security and the serious threats posed by cyber attacks.”
CyberArabia is inspired and supported by CyberPatriot, a US-based, youth cyber defence competition established in 2009 by the non-profit Air Force Association and in conjunction with the Northrop Grumman Foundation.
More than 4,400 teams of students participated in CyberPatriot IX last year. In addition, Northrop Grumman is partnering with Cyber Security Challenge UK to sponsor CyberCenturion, the first team-based cyber security contest in the United Kingdom.
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