A government-sponsored competition to encourage school-aged children to pursue a career in cybersecurity has persuaded thousands across the UK to participate this year.
According to the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), 13 teams were named regional champions in last weekend’s 2023 CyberFirst Girls Competition finals, with more than 8,700 people competing.
After passing the online qualifying rounds, teams of up to four 12- to 13-year-olds were invited to face each other in the regional finals. Team challenges included testing knowledge of cryptography and logic, artificial intelligence, and networking.
The winners of each regional final were invited to a grand prize dinner and celebration later in the year. Many other prizes are handed out there, including the highest scoring team, school and state rookie awards, and most team entry awards.
The industry is increasingly in need of building a talent pipeline to replace retired cybersecurity professionals with a shortage of successors.
According to ISC2, there is currently a shortage of 3.4 million security professionals worldwide, with about 57,000 in the UK and over 410,000 in the US.
Diversity is improving, but only 30% of under 30s are female, and even fewer (24%) are 30-38 year olds in the industry. For the elderly group, the labor force share drops to 12-14%.
This is part of the reason NCSC is focusing on school-aged girls in this competition.
“The 2023 CyberFirst Girls Competition was a huge success. We would like to thank our teachers for inspiring and supporting our students. We would also like to thank our industry partners for their support,” said the NCSC deputy director. Chris Ensor of Cyber Growth.
“It is heartening to see so many young people working in cybersecurity and we hope many of you will pursue careers within the industry and help protect the UK from future online threats.”
