Six computer science students from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) made history when they won the Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation (KIPS) international competition held online recently.
The Malaysian student team known as MH4/2 group performed best in the simulation game by beating 55 teams from around the globe.
KIPS or Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation is a highly engaging training designed to boost the cybersecurity awareness through game-based learning environment.
The Malaysian team took home the champion prize of USD3,000 with each team member receiving USD500 and a license for training at Kaspersky Online Cybersecurity Training Platform.
Second place winner is Team FHAV1, FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences from Germany and third place winner is NakaTeam, MIREA – Russian Technological University (RTU MIREA) from Russia.
A total of 55 teams from 14 countries participated in the Kaspersky Academy’s championship for Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation (KIPS) including Algeria, Brazil, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria, Russia, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom and Malaysia.
During these gamified activities, custom-built software simulates the impact of cyberattacks and associated management decisions on business performance and revenue.
The teams played three different stages wherein after each stage 30% of teams with the lowest result were eliminated from the championship.
The first stage under KIPS is ‘Airport’ scenario; the second stage is ‘Threat Attribution’ scenario which is a newly announced scenario; and the last stage dubbed as ‘Power Station’ scenario.
Kaspersky managing director for Asia Pacific Chris Connell said it was encouraging to see young learners globally becoming increasingly interested towards cybersecurity.
“We are proud of Malaysia’s MH4/2 group who has beaten all its competitors from around the world. Cybersecurity Malaysia recently noted that the country recorded a shortage of 7,917 experts within the field of cybersecurity and that the nation aims to produce 20,000 cybersecurity knowledge workers by 2025. Going by the result of our 2021 KIPS championship, we believe that the future is bright for Malaysia’s cybersecurity industry with these young minds interested to bring on a safer future,” he said.
The KIPS dynamic program helps to engage community in understanding of cyberattacks and how to manage them efficiently and mitigate cyber risks.
To increase awareness about the latest online threats among the youths, the global cybersecurity company organized international contest for students who are interested in IT and OT security and in gaining gamified experience in terms of managing different cyberattacks.
Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation is a part of the Kaspersky Security Awareness portfolio and more information on how to request a training can be found here.
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