Abu Dhabi: The world’s best students in cyber security will descend on Abu Dhabi in November as New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) hosts the Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW).

The event will see students put their knowledge on information security to the test in a series of elimination rounds. The winner will proceed to NYUAD, New York University Tandon in India, and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kanpur, India, for the final rounds on November 10-12.

Nasir Memon, founder of CSAW and head of NYUAD’s cyber security programme, said: “Data security is a critical global issue. Attackers know no national boundaries, and neither should those who protect our personal privacy and institutions.”

As well as attracting the best cyber security students, the CSAW has also become a platform for major IT companies to identify future prospective employees to come and work for them.

Main competitions:

Capture the Flag

Students will be faced with real world examples of computer related security issues that they will have to solve. The winners will be judged by a panel of IT experts and receive cash prizes.

Embedded Security Challenge

NYU Tandon will compete with one of the other participating hosts – NYUAD Abu Dhabi – using a red and blue team who will simulate real world attacks. The members of each team must find the weak spots of a target system, and perform tasks such as creating an effecting defence system.

High School Forensics Challenge

Students will work in teams of one to three people and will be tasked with examining and studying electronic evidence that is related to a crime. The team that does the best will be flown to New York City or Abu Dhabi and will compete on site to solve a murder mystery.

Policy Competition

Students will have to come up with proposals and policies to tackle issues like cyber security law. A panel of experts will then judge the soundness of their proposals in the finals and whether they can actually be implemented.

Applied Research Competition

Students will write a paper on subjects like security technology and security systems, with the best accepted papers being presented by the students onsite during the finals. Technical experts will judge their paper based on the originality and relevance of their research.

How to register

Log on to https://csaw.engineering.nyu.edu