The first international competition awarding cash prizes for best practices and advances in computer and network security will be held June 22 to 27, 2008, at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The contest paying US$5,000 to the grand prize winner and US$2,500 to the first prize winner is being held by the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST) and the Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERT/CC).
These inaugural awards bring together two fields of security activity—prevention and mitigation—under the theme of "Protect," reflecting the first phase of a computer security incident response team's cycle of activity: protect, detect, respond, and sustain, according to the organizers.
The purpose of the awards, says Jeffrey Carpenter, manager of CERT/CC, is to honor those everyday security personnel who develop the best practices to prevent or mitigate cyber attacks. "Security experts who work in the trenches to protect their organizations are under recognized for their work," Carpenter says. "This competition not only highlights best practices, but recognizes individuals protecting the Internet from security attacks, cybercrime, and other threats."
"They really are the unknown warriors in a continuing, increasingly fierce, and complex battle," says Peter Allor, FIRST steering committee member, echoing Carpenter's sentiment about day-to-day security practitioners. "These awards will throw a well-deserved spotlight on individuals and teams who are beacons of best practice in a dangerous world."
Any working group, team, organization, or individual who has developed a best practice is eligible to enter the competition. Submissions must encompass this year's Protect theme. FIRST and CERT/CC define preventive actions as those that secure and fortify systems and networks, decreasing the chances of an attack against infrastructure. Mitigation involves changing the enterprise infrastructure to contain, eradicate, or fix actual or potential malicious activity.
"In each case, we are looking for the most innovative strategies and solutions that can be translated swiftly into best practices to reduce global security threats," Carpenter says. "As well as honoring excellence, this is designed to have a useful outcome throughout the cyber community."
"Since FIRST was founded 20 years ago, attacks have mutated from mischief and malice into the darker realms of sabotage and organized crime," Allor says. "Never has the work of individuals and teams in security been so vital. Without it, the perils facing governments, businesses, academics, and individuals would be overwhelming and potentially catastrophic."
See the Best Practices Competition for important details about entering. And remember to submit papers by Tuesday, April 30, 2008, 11:59 p.m. U.S. Eastern Daylight Time, or if you need more time, request an extension from the evaluation committee chair.
Or just register for and attend the FIRST Conference.
About FIRST
The worldwide Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams is a nonprofit organization, which leads the world's fight against cyber crime and consists of the Internet emergency response teams from 180 corporations, government bodies, universities, and other institutions from across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania.
About CERT/CC and the Software Engineering Institute
The CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) is part of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) and serves as a center of enterprise and network security research, analysis, and training within SEI, a U.S. Department of Defense federally funded research and development center operated by Carnegie Mellon University. SEI helps organizations make measured improvements in their software engineering capabilities by providing technical leadership to advance the practice of software engineering.
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