Game On! NYU-Poly and AT&T Issue First Call for Entrants to 2012 Cyber Security Awareness Week Games

The countdown has begun toward the biggest gathering of the best young minds in cyber security, the 9th annual Cyber Security Awareness Week(CSAW) games at the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly).  In collaboration with AT&T, NYU-Poly has issued this year's first call for entrants in the AT&T Security Research Paper competition, which honors the top published student research paper of the year.

It is one of six challenges that comprise CSAW, a fiercely competitive three-day event that is expected to draw finalists in various challenges from among more than 1,000 students from around the world. The finalists will participate in a new conference and compete on NYU-Poly’s Brooklyn campus November 15-17, 2012.

This is the fourth year AT&T has sponsored the Security Research Paper Competition. The contest carries a $1,000 prize for the first-place winner. Because eligibility is limited to research previously accepted by academic conferences and journals, the contest traditionally draws the very top security work of doctoral students worldwide.

Student researchers may register onlineand enter papers that were submitted to or accepted at a conference or journal between September 1, 2011 and August 31, 2012. The topic can relate to any application of security technology, the implementation of systems and lessons learned. Although the contest is open to students worldwide, only those from the United States and Canada are eligible to earn travel awards to participate in the final round.

"This is the official start of CSAW 2012, and we're very excited for this year's competitions, which grow bigger and more spirited each year," said Nasir Memon, founder of CSAW and director NYU-Poly’s cyber security program. "We're also thankful to our partners at AT&T, who have generously sponsored CSAW long before they became the title sponsor of our competition for the best security paper.  They have encouraged their security experts to participate as judges, ensuring that our students learn from acknowledged leaders in the field."

“The evolving landscape of cyber threats demands greater innovation and more technically astute expertise,” said AT&T Chief Security Officer Ed Amoroso. “We believe cyber security education and research are vital investments in the next generation of security professionals.  Academic programs, such as the CSAW competition, are important opportunities for students to explore new approaches for current and future challenges.”      

Submissions are evaluated on originality, relevance and correctness, and finalists will join the CSAW competition in New York to present their work to judges from academia, government and industry — including members of the AT&T Security Research Center. The entry deadline is September 25, 2012.

In the coming weeks, registration will open for all CSAW games, including Capture the Flag, a challenge designed to test application security skills of entry-level students as well as professionals; the Embedded Systems challenge to discover and exploit hardware vulnerabilities; the High School Forensics Challenge, a fast-paced mystery challenge combining log and file analysis, botnet detection and file carving; and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Security Quiz, a fast-paced game open to all students from all disciplines during the finals.

NYU-Poly was one of the first universities to introduce a cyber security program, and is designated as both a Center of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education and a Center of Academic Excellence in Research by the National Security Agency.  The Sloan Consortium, an affiliation of educators and institutions dedicated to quality online education, named NYU-Poly’s virtual graduate cyber security program the Outstanding Online Program of 2011. The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Security and Privacy (CRISSP), a cutting-edge research collaboration of NYU-Poly and other NYU schools, re-examines the entire cyber security paradigm to integrate technology with broader issues such as human psychology, business, public policies and law.