SAN DIEGO and MCLEAN, Va., Dec. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Science Applications International Corporation today announced that it will host the "Cyber Defense Challenge," a new competition aimed at inspiring students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The challenge, sponsored by the San Diego Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), begins December 15 and will last three months. Teams of computer science students from 12 San Diego area high schools and universities will test their ability to defend against today's cyber attacks. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) is coordinating student participation.
SAIC will host the multiday event at the company's San Diego campus. Teams will use SAIC's patent-pending cyber defense trainer. Developed in conjunction with the Navy, the cyber defense trainer is a self-contained, realistic learning environment that provides cost-effective training to system administrators and security professionals so that they may effectively protect their critical information resources.
According to NDIA, there are insufficient numbers of students graduating with science and math degrees to meet the future government and industry needs. At the same time, cyber threats are growing by the day, and more than 100 countries already have cyber warfare tools in their military arsenals.
Under the rubric of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), the local NDIA chapter is launching the Cyber Defense Challenge as one of several initiatives to address the predicted shortfall of scientists and engineers. NDIA envisions the competition as a way of immersing students in real world technology issues that will increase the level of excitement for learning technology.
"If this pilot competition proves successful, the vision would be to take this to a national level, similar to the annual Scripps Spelling Bee competition," said Gerry Nifontoff, NDIA executive vice president, San Diego Chapter.
"SAIC is committed to supporting initiatives that empower our students and bring attention to educational issues that impact our national interests," said Larry Cox, SAIC senior vice president and business unit general manager. "SAIC is first and foremost a science and engineering company. We will do all that we can to promote these technical disciplines to the generation that follows."
The patent-pending cyber defense trainer employs a realistic Web-based environment which provides immediate feedback to students while they play the game. Students experience a realistic network of computers, routers and firewalls in which to learn how to lock down a system, and conduct intrusion detection, incident and forensics analysis, and incident cleanup. As in video games, the object of the trainer is to defeat your opponent, which will be members of SAIC's Penetration Testing or Ethical Hacking Team. This challenging game environment presents students with vulnerable systems and cyber attacks to train and test their ability to maintain critical services in a hostile, real-world environment. This cyber defense training has been previously conducted at various federal agencies.
SAIC and UCSD have combined forces to conduct the first San Diego-based STEM initiative. As the sponsoring organization, NDIA will evaluate its efficacy for potential national competitions and meeting the STEM goals and will present trophies to the winning high school and university. In addition to UCSD coordinating school participation, they will monitor the competition for fairness.
For more information about the NDIA 2008 Cyber Defense Challenge go to http://www.saic.com/cyber-defense/ .
SAIC is a leading provider of scientific, engineering, systems integration and technical services and solutions to all branches of the U.S. military, agencies of the Department of Defense, the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other U.S. Government civil agencies, as well as to customers in selected commercial markets. With approximately 44,000 employees in more than 150 cities worldwide, SAIC engineers and scientists solve complex technical challenges requiring innovative solutions for customers' mission-critical functions. SAIC had annual revenues of $8.3 billion for its fiscal year ended January 31, 2007.
SAIC: FROM SCIENCE TO SOLUTIONS(R)
Statements in this announcement, other than historical data and information, constitute forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause our actual results, performance, achievements, or industry results to be very different from the results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward- looking statements. Some of these factors include, but are not limited to, the risk factors set forth in SAIC's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the period ended January 31, 2007, and other such filings that SAIC makes with the SEC from time to time. Due to such uncertainties and risks, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.
Contact: Ron Zollars, San Diego Melissa Koskovich, McLean
858/826-7896 703/676-6762
