Ireland wins gold at WorldSkills Global Skills Challenge
An Irish team of cyber security experts has won the gold medal at the WorldSkills Global Skills Challenge 2024, hosted by WorldSkills Australia.
The team of Mark Drinan and Luke Woodside, guided by Dr. George O’Mahony of Munster Technological University (MTU), beat competition from Australia, Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), and Singapore. They will now move forward to the WorldSkills International Cybersecurity Competition (Skill 54) in Lyon this September.
As part of the Global Skills Challenge, the teams were put into the scenario of a real-world cyber-attack on a fictitious company that was started based on a rogue malicious USB and insider threat. Over three days the teams had to run digital forensics on an infected end-user computer, each team also had to create reports including a technical brief, a timeline of the cyber-attack, a report for the media and a report for the board of directors. This competition was about accurately identifying what happened and providing real-world preventative measures and recommendations.
Drinan is a recent graduate from the Cybersecurity Masters at MTU and an engineer at IBM, and Woodside, a graduate from TUS (Technological University Shannon) and managing director of Woodside Networks.
The team trained on and competed nationally using MTU’s Cyber Range, a state-of-the-art cybersecurity platform unique to Ireland. The facility enables simulations of cyber-attacks on virtual organisations, providing invaluable training for students, researchers, and industry professionals without risking real-world damage or outages.
Dr. George O’Mahony, Cybersecurity lecturer and researcher at Cyber Skills at MTU and WorldSkills Ireland Expert Skill 54 – Cybersecurity, said: “This win is a great example of the work Ireland’s cybersecurity academics and experts are doing in preparing young Irish professionals to compete on the world stage. It highlights the calibre of talent being produced and the strong pipeline of skilled cybersecurity professionals available in Ireland. The win is a great boost to the team and a big step along their training and upskilling journey. The work Mark and Luke have put in has been a testament to their drive and determination.”
Drinan said: “I am incredibly proud to represent my country and bring home a Gold Medal for Ireland. This medal represents Ireland’s commitment to investing in high-quality, practical cybersecurity education.”
WorldSkills Ireland Chair-Technical Delegate Ray English from Technological University Dublin added: “The Global Skills Challenge held in Melbourne and hosted by WorldSkills Australia was a great platform for the WorldSkills Ireland Team of Luke Woodside, Mark Drinan and Cyber Security expert George O’Mahony to test their preparedness for the Olympics of Skills in Lyon in September 2024. We encourage ICT students to start their Skills Olympics journey by participating in the WorldSkills Ireland National Competitions this September, test your skills against the best nationally and possibly internationally.”
TechCentral Reporters
Subscribers 0
Fans 0
Followers 0
Followers