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  • Isle of Man

Code Club teams to represent Isle of Man in Cybersecurity contest

Two teams from the Isle of Man Code Club have been invited to take part in the CyberCenturion National Finals this year. This is the first time two Manx teams have managed to get into the top 15 spots in the competition, scoring some of the best scores out of the 400 teams taking part this year.

Each year, teams from Code Club participate in CyberCenturion, a national cyber education initiative for 12- to 18-year-olds across the British Isles. The program is designed to excite, educate and motivate students to pursue further education and careers in STEM and cybersecurity, helping to grow our local talent pool, and introducing the students to a highly sought after career path.

This year’s competition has been running since October 2021 and the teams have taken part in 3 competitive rounds where they faced various cybersecurity challenges to test their skills and abilities. In each session, the teams had a number of computers to protect; removing vulnerabilities and hardening the machines to make them more secure. At the end of the three sessions, one of the Manx senior teams was placed 2nd overall and one of the junior teams achieved 2nd place in the Junior Mixed Team category.

The senior team representing the Isle of Man is composed of four boys from different schools around the Island: Aaron Rielly, Arthur Owenson, Luka Warren and Siddharth Muthu Pandian participating together under the team name CyberAces. This team had won the junior category 3 years ago and came 2nd in the CyberCenturion National Finals last year. The junior team consists of  Alexander Owenson, Aristea Owenson, Brodie Millar, Cameron Bazley and Phelim Bullock. A total of 23 Manx teenagers took part in the contest, learning aspects of cybersecurity, networking and operating systems as part of their training and preparation.

Owen Cutajar from Code Club said, “We are delighted that these 2 teams managed to qualify for the final; this success is a testament to how hard they worked and the effort they put in. Digital skills are essential in today’s world and cybersecurity is a growing area which is becoming increasingly important. This competition gives these teams an opportunity to shine, learn new skills and demonstrate outstanding teamwork.”

“The finals will be held in the UK in April,” he continued. “We don’t have the final details yet but have already started fundraising to support the teams’ travel and accommodation. In the meantime, we’re encouraging the teams to learn more about cybersecurity at our Saturday Code Club sessions. These sessions are held at Eagle Lab in Douglas between 4:00pm and 6:00pm every Saturday and are free for anyone to attend.”

Code Club is a Manx charity dedicated to increasing digital literacy, promoting coding skills and engendering a lifelong love of technology. If you are interested in helping with sponsorship, please contact sponsorship@codeclub.im

Further information:

https://codeclub.im

https://www.stem.org.uk/cyber-centurion