Birmingham computer scientists take part in national cyber security challenge

The University of Birmingham's School of Computer Science, along with 3 other leading university computer science departments in the UK, is taking part in a unique code-breaking competition as part of this year's Cyber Security Challenge UK. All departments have accepted the challenge to develop their own cipher, a puzzle based on encrypted messages that will be released to other participating universities and Challenge candidates to break. A new cipher will be released each week during the challenge. They will be designed to inspire students who are particularly interested in entering cyber security careers and practising their skills. It will also act as a proof of concept for a series of university-on-university competitions that the Cyber Security Challenge is looking to run in the future. The Cyber Security Challenge UK began in 2010 as three competitions run by a small group of supporters from industry, government and academia to address a skills gap in the cyber security profession. Now in its third year the Challenge has grown its range of competitions to better represent the variety of skills currently demanded within the profession.