Aug 4, 2011 | ALBUQUERQUE, NM – The cybersecurity executing arm of the United Nations has endorsed the Global CyberLympics, a new initiative by the EC-Council to foster stronger international cooperation on information security issues and to improve cybersecurity training and awareness in developing nations and third world countries.

Created by EC-Council, the Global CyberLympics is a series of ethical hacking games comprised of both offensive and defensive security challenges that will take place starting from September across six continents. Teams will vie for regional championships, followed by a global championship round to determine the world’s best cybersecurity team. The EC-Council is sponsoring over $400,000 worth of prizes at the CyberLympics.

The Global CyberLympics is supported by the International Multilateral Partnership Against Cyber Threats (IMPACT), the cybersecurity executing arm of the United Nations’ specialized agency – the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). With this support, the Global CyberLympics hopes to be able to promote its mission to 136 partner countries.

“The Global CyberLympics could help to foster a greater sense of partnership and cooperation between countries on the issue of cybersecurity,” said Mohd Noor Amin, Chairman of IMPACT. “By sharing knowledge, training and resources, we can help to improve the level of cybersecurity in many countries and regions around the world.”

“Our purpose with the Global CyberLympics initiative is to help establish true cybersecurity partnerships across borders,” said Jay Bavisi, Chairman of the Global CyberLympics Organizing Committee and president of EC-Council. “We are very proud and honored for this initiative to be supported by key players in the information security community, including IMPACT, the world’s first United Nations-backed global alliance for cybersecurity, as well as some of the most reputable events such as GITEX, the largest IT tradeshow in the Middle East region, and Hacktivity, the largest hackers conference in central and eastern Europe.”

The games come at a crucial time as global cyber threats appear to be escalating. According to the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, the annual loss of intellectual property and investment opportunities is $6 to $20 billion as a result of hacking. In a recent article about cyber espionage attacks against the US, the magazine Vanity Fair even referred to 2011 as “the Year of the Hack.”

The EC-Council’s mission with the Global CyberLympics is to unify global cyber defense through the games, along with the following objectives:

• Capacity Building: Discover new talents, methods and ideas; and to encourage development in the field of information security. Besides discovering gifted hackers and cyber-defenders, the Global CyberLympics will also inspire the development of Information security professionals of the future.

• Raising Awareness: Educate the global community, especially in developing nations and third world countries, on the issues of Information security, and encourage further development of the field. This will raise awareness towards increased education and ethics in information security.

• Global Peace: Foster friendshipand create cohesiveness between information security professionals, whether as an individual, representing a corporation or for a national agency, and encourage frequent exchange of essential information, technology and skills.

Regional championships will be held in various locations across different continents, and co-hosted with reputable IT/information security conferences and tradeshows, as follows:

1. North America Eastern | Hacker Halted USA – Miami, USA
2. North America Western | TakeDownCon – Las Vegas, USA
3. South America | H2HC – Sao Paolo, Brazil
4. Europe | Hacktivity – Budapest, Hungary
5. Middle East & India | GITEX – Dubai, UAE
6. Asia Pacific | Hacker Halted APAC – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
7. Africa | TakeDownCon – Johannesburg, South Africa

The CyberLympics world final is tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2012, with its venue still being decided.

EC-Council has selected iSight Partners’ Threatspace platform as the Official Technology Partner of the Global CyberLympics 2011-12.

Registration for the Global CyberLympics is open, and more details can be found at the official Global CyberLympics website: http://www.cyberlympics.org.