Teenage Girls Play Major Role in GCHQ’s Cyber Battle Plan

GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) has created a new contest with the purpose of enticing a greater number of girls to consider a cyber security career.

Today’s teenage girls, with a high volume of online and social media activity, could become tomorrow’s spies. Well, that is the hope, at least, of the UK’s intelligence agency. Playing spy may just be the most glamorous of cyber security jobs, certainly in the eyes of teenagers.

Girls from 13 to 15 years old will take part in the contest that will test cryptography and networking, logic and coding. The contestants may ultimately be competing for penetration testing jobs, or even digital forensic jobs, although they are some years away from that just now.

Currently, women make up just 10% of the worldwide cyber industry, says the agency.

Contestants will be split up into groups of four before completing web-based tasks remotely via school computers. Groups that have achieved the highest results will be asked to attend London’s CyberFirst contest final, where they will be expected to get their heads around an advanced cyber threat.

Robert Hannigan, director for the Government Communications Headquarters, expressed appreciation for the women with whom he works alongside and their efforts to defend the country from all kinds of cyber threats. He added:

“The CyberFirst Girls competition allows teams of young women a glimpse of this exciting world and provides a great opportunity to use new skills.”

The contest falls under the National Cyber Security Strategy, which was announced late last year, and will be governed by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).