National ICT Security Discourse: CybeSAFE Challenge Trophy (NICTSED) 2016

Malaysia’s youth need to sharpen their creativity and thinking skills in cyber security in order to become internet leaders of tomorrow as the nation transforms towards Digital Economy. The clarion call was made by YB Dato’ P. Kamalanathan A/L P. Panchanathan, Deputy Minister of Education 1 during his speech at the 4th National ICT Security Discourse : CyberSAFE Challenge Trophy (NICTSeD) 2016.

“Malaysia’s future progress will be determined by the quality of the country’s scientists, academicians, researchers and students. Such manpower has to be drawn especially from the field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Competition such as NICTSeD provides participants with an excellent opportunity to exchange new ideas, gain valuable experience, and create links among schools from various states for future collaboration,” said YB Dato’ P. Kamalanathan.

“We hope these interactions will inspire more students to pursue STEM courses which will offer them better career prospects and at the same time, help meet the nation’s demand for more IT engineers and cyber security specialists,” added Dato’ P. Kamalanathan.

In his speech, CyberSecurity Malaysia’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Amirudin Abdul Wahab said that Malaysia’s young students should continue to develop their capacity in conceptualizing, synthesizing and solving problems through future participation in cyber security discourse.

“NICTSeD participants would be our potential pool of talent for future professionals in ICT security. With the various cyber security awareness and programmes, it has prepared them with the necessary cyber safety knowledge and skills. I am confidence that some of them will join the cyber security future workforce.”

“Cyberspace today is a dynamic landscape with continuously advancing technologies upon which our economy, research, social interaction and national security increasingly rely on. CyberSecurity Malaysia will continue to share and deliver the most updated cyber security information and alerts, best industry practices, training as well as awareness programmes to strengthen Malaysia’s cyber resiliency and help our next generation of Internet Leaders to thrive,” said Dr Amirudin.

NICTSeD is an annual discourse competition open to all Malaysian students held in conjunction with Cyber Security Malaysia – Awards Conference and Exhibition (CSM-ACE) 2016 event. It is organized by CyberSecurity Malaysia, the national cyber security specialist centre in collaboration with Education Technology Division of the Ministry of Education, endorsed by Ministry of Education (MOE) and Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and supported by DiGi Telecommunications and BAE Systems.

NICTSeD 2016 received an overwhelming response from 123 schools nationwide comprising 492 students across all states in Malaysia. Teams from Sekolah Tunku Kurshiah of Seremban, Negeri Sembilan and Sekolah Menengah Sultan Ismail of Johor Bahru, Johor broke through the ranks and qualified as national finalists.

After a competitive discourse through intense information exchange, Kolej Tunku Kurshiah of Negeri Sembilan impressed the panel of experts with their commanding performance and emerged champions of the 4th National ICT Security Discourse (NICTSeD). The winning team was presented with the CyberSAFE Challenge trophy, certificates of participation and RM5,000 prize money.

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CyberSecurity Malaysia is the national specialist centre for cyber security, under the purview of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI). For additional information, please visit our website at http://www.cybersecurity.my. For general inquiry, please email to info@cybersecurity.my  Stay connected with us on social networks: facebook/ CyberSecurityMalaysia, twitter/cybersecuritymy, youtube/cybersecuritymy, instagram/CyberSecurity_Malaysia