Trend Micro’s global ‘capture the flag’ provided real-world ethical hacking experience in the most critical areas for stopping attacks.

Trend Micro Incorporated recently announced its 5^th annual Capture The Flag (CTF) competition. The Trend Micro CTF 2019 – Raimund Genes Cup invites teams from around the world to test their skills in today’s most critical areas of security risk.

As one way to equip cybersecurity talent in the workforce, the annual global CTF helped participants developed and honed their skills in today’s most critical areas of need, including forensics and exploitation, IoT, reverse engineering, open source intelligence, mobile, and machine learning. Teams had faced challenges that involved these key areas, providing real-world practice with critical scenarios.

“Without enough equipped professionals across the globe to actually implement security solutions for all businesses, then the attackers will win,” said Hernan Armbruster, senior vice president, America’s & strategic products, Trend Micro. “Growing talent across the board is a necessity to help the world be safer for exchanging digital information. As an industry leader, we strive to do our part to add strong practitioners through this event along with many other global initiatives.”

This year’s Global CTF consists of two rounds, an online qualifier and the finals. This will take place on September 7-8 (Japan time). The online qualifier will include Jeopardy style questions that challenge teams to solve various security problems quickly. The top 10 teams will be chosen to qualify for the finals, which will take place in Tokyo, Japan on November 23-24. Global CTF’s finals will utilize a new “Dynamic Value” Jeopardy format to further test the teams’ skills.

The winning team from the finals will JPY1,000,000, which is about HKD $73,700. Additionally, each player from the winning team will receive 15,000 Zero Day Initiative Rewards Program points, which will help program submitters earn exclusive awards and benefits. The second and third place teams receive JPY300,000 and JPY200,000, which is nearly HK$22,000 and $14,000 respectively.

“A lack of qualified professionals is the most consistent security concern we hear from businesses,” said Mark Liggett, senior security analyst, Tulane University. “Trend Micro is one of very few global companies that is actively working to help change this. Equipping new professionals from all walks of life is key to helping more businesses effectively manage their security stack and mitigate the risk of attack.”

Trend Micro hosts and supported more than 50 similar competitions each year around the world, including the main global event, hosting 15 contests in collaboration with the Organization of American States, which are specific to women across the America.

To further grow diversity and skills in the industry, Trend Micro is also a global partner with Girls in Tech to encourage security education among their network of female professionals. To register a team for the online qualifier, please visit: https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/campaigns/capture-the-flag.html