Polytechnic Institute of NYU Announces Fifth Annual Cyber Security Awareness Week
Polytechnic Institute of NYU, an affiliate of New York University, announces its fifth annual Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW), where students nationwide can compete and win prizes in a variety of information security challenges. CSAW, founded by Professor Nasir Memon, Director of Polytechnic Institute of NYU’s National Science Foundation-funded Information and Internet Security Lab (ISIS), aims to bolster awareness of cyber security and to develop innovative technology solutions based on cutting edge research.
This year’s CSAW competition offers a number of cyber security challenge scenarios across several disciplines in September and October, including forensics, embedded systems, and application security among others. Students can compete remotely. One challenge for CSAW 2008 is the cyber forensics scenario. Presented as a murder mystery, students will be given data clues with which they must recover information from the victim’s partially destroyed USB key to solve the crime.
Culminating in an award ceremony on October 14 at the Polytechnic Institute of NYU’s Brooklyn campus, CSAW winners will be announced and industry leaders will speak to a range of cyber security issues. First place winners in each challenge receive $500, second place receives $250, and third place receives $100, in addition to raffle prizes and exposure to potential employers. All finalists will be provided a travel scholarship to attend the award ceremony.
“Cyber security, as we have seen in recent weeks on the world stage, will only become increasingly important as more of our own personal information and critical national assets migrate online,” said Professor Memon. “At NYU-Poly, we want to address cyber security challenges by fostering innovation and invention among our future technology leaders, and as in years past, we expect CSAW to highlight exceptional students who will emerge as leaders in the this dynamic field.”
Previous CSAW challenges have attracted students from across the nation. In 2007, more than 300 students participated and more than a dozen companies, both Fortune 500s and small and mid-sized companies sponsored the initiative.
