Kaspersky Lab Announces the Winners of Its Annual Student Conference

Following three highly informative days of discussions at the cutting edge of IT security, Kaspersky Lab has announced the winners of its annual international 'IT Security for the Next Generation' conference. The event, held at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, on 11-13 May brought together the brightest researchers from four regional conferences to compete for the top awards. After a lively program of presentations, discussions and workshops, the overall winners were as follows.

Joshua Arvin Lat from the University of the Philippines, won the first prize, with “SOUL System: Secure Online USB Login System”. His project was co-authored with  Kevin Charles Atienza and Rod Xavier Bondoc. Second place went to Iwan Gulenko, a student of the University of Munich, Germany, who presented research into “Concept and Development of a Facebook Application to Raise Security and Risk Awareness Regarding Social Engineering”. Napa Sae-Bae, NYU Poly, New York NY, USA took 3rd place with “Biometric-Rich Gestures: A Novel Approach to Authentication on Multi-touch Devices” All the prize winners received a testimonial.
 
In addition the jury decided to present a special prize to Ang Cui, Columbia University, New York, USA for his work “Killing the Myth of Cisco IOS Diversity: Recent Advances in Reliable Shell code Design” (in co-authorship with Jatin Kataria and Salvatore J. Stolfo). Ang Cui will be invited to participate in the Security Analyst Summit, an international IT security conference held by Kaspersky Lab in conjunction with leading software vendors and which is attended by over 100 IT experts from all over the world.

“The quality of the student papers is absolutely outstanding and I am amazed to see the level of research presented across all the papers selected for the conference. I believe such initiatives by Kaspersky Lab play a major role in bringing academics, security experts at Kaspersky Lab and, most importantly, the best student brains closer to each other and promoting the culture of education and research around the world,” commented jury member Dr. Priyadarsi Nanda, Professor, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia

The annual conference has been held since 2008. The most promising student papers submitted to the organizers are selected, and those nominees are invited to participate in the conference. There, they have an opportunity to present their research work, competing with their fellow participants from other universities, as well as attend master classes and presentations from industry experts, and to join those experts in discussions on contemporary IT security problems. Regional rounds of the conference are held in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and Russia and the CIS, with the strongest candidates progressing to the final phase.

“The international ‘IT Security for the Next Generation’ conference is a platform for discussion and the exchange of knowledge and experience, bringing together current and future IT security professionals. The conference aims to support and encourage talented young specialists in the battle against Internet threats, while helping them form an idea of the IT security profession and current industry trends while they are still at university,” explains Veniamin Ginodman, Director of Educational Programs at Kaspersky Lab.

In 2012, 14 winners of the regional rounds participated in the final of the ‘IT Security for the Next Generation’ international conference. Alongside leading Kaspersky Lab security experts, the jury included:

• Last year’s winner Mark Seeger, Doctoral researcher, CASED Department Secure Services;
• Andrey Philippovich, Professor, Bauman Moscow State Technical University;
• Gevorg Margarov, Professor, State Engineering University of Armenia;
• Nasir Memon, Professor, CSE Department, Polytechnic Institute of NYU;
• Dr. Priyadarsi Nanda, Professor, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia;
• Dr. Andrew Martin, MA DPhil MBCS CEng CITP, University Lecturer in Software Engineering, Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford;
• Dr. Maria Papadaki, Lecturer in Network Security, Centre for Security, Communications and Network Research, University of Plymouth.

Nasir Memon, Professor, CSE Department, Polytechnic Institute of NYU, highlighted that “Creating a secure and reliable infrastructure is one of the biggest challenges we face in a globalized economy and it is imperative that we get the brightest minds to tackle this problem. The Kaspersky challenge is a great example of how we can excite and challenge talented students from around the world and make them aware of the challenges we face”.

“This is a unique event,” echoed  Dr. Andrew Martin, of Oxford,  “and in its varied audience it is a great reminder that IT Security is a very diverse field, needing many perspectives in  order to solve the hardest problems.  The students' enthusiasm and their immersion in the digital world helps to inject energy into a community always in need of new ideas.”