Could You be a World Skills Champion 2022?

World Skills Ireland Preliminary Competition 2022

Do you, or someone you know, have what it takes to be a Cyber Security world skills champion? We are looking for candidates to represent Ireland at the 2022 World Skills Competition. The criteria:

  • Aged between 18-26? (born in 1996 or younger)
  • Studying or working on the island of Ireland
  • Interested in Cyber Security?

If yes, then Cyber Skills wants to hear from you! The preliminary round will take place online on Friday 28th January from 2-6 pm. The competition will use a Cyber Range infrastructure and will include cyber security scenarios which the competitors need to investigate and complete. The top-performing competitors will be chosen to move forward to the National Final in March 2022.  The chosen national final competitors will receive 6 weeks of mentorship to hone their skills after the preliminary event to prepare them for the National Final.

Closing date to register is Tuesday 25th January 2022. All potential competitors will need to pass an entrance challenge before being allowed to compete in the preliminary competition.


World Skills Ireland National Competition 2022

The successful candidates will compete at the WorldSkills Ireland National Competition which will take place from March 22nd – 24th 2022 at the RDS Dublin. 

This competition will include at least four 3-4 hour sessions across a three-day event. This will include cyber security scenarios which the competitors need to investigate and complete. Scenarios can include penetration testing, incident investigation, security hardening, system/application analysis and capture the flag sessions. 

The national final will have one overall winner based on marking from WorldSkills and will be used to select the Irish Team for the cyber security skill for Shanghai 2022.


Get Involved Through Mentorship, Challenges & Sponsorship

If you, or your organisation want to get involved but don’t meet the criteria to compete, there are other ways to play your part.

1: National Preliminary Competition Sponsorship/CTF:
The prelimary competition will take place on January 28th and is open to 18-26 year olds from the island of Ireland.

Can your organisation sponsor winners prizes? Can you contribute CTF style challenges or other cyber security scenarios? Short specific challenges surrounding the following would be most suitable: penetration testing, incident investigation, security hardening, system/application analysis and capture the flag sessions.

Full credit will be given to the creator/company on the CYRIN competition page. This will be using the CYRIN Cyber Range which the organizers have full control of to make the challenges.


2: Mentorship of Preliminary CTF Winners:
Mentorship for 6-10 people who placed This would be for 6-10 people who placed the highest from the preliminary CTF, from January 31st – 11th March.

Example: A 1-2 hour tutorial presentation and discussion with the winners at the beginning of the week where the mentor gives an idea of their field at a more technical level and provides insight into best practices and resources etc. They then provide mentorees challenges or scenarios for them to complete over the week, delivered via the cyber range. As well as access to the mentor for any questions they have.


3: Nationals in the RDS:

The National Finals will take place from the 22nd – 24th of March and will consist of 3 – 4 hour sesssions looking at: Secure systems design and creation, Secure systems operation and maintenance, Secure systems protection and defence, Operations and Management, Intelligence collection and analysis, Investigation and Digital Forensics.

Can your organisation contribute to these challenges? The National Finals need industry professionals to create challenges and scenarios, designed around real life challenges.

There is also the option for product sponsorship (2k plus VAT) and this will be used to provide necessary resources for the national final.

The National Finals require one of the final judges to come from industry. Could this be you?

If you or your organisation is interested in getting involved please contact Dr. George O’Mahony – WorldSkills Ireland Expert for Skill 54 – Cyber Security.