Kaspersky Lab today announced a global initiative designed to identify and nurture new talent for the security industry. The Security Startup Challenge (SSC) is a mentor-driven acceleration program developed and implemented by the Kaspersky Academy, in partnership with venture industry leaders, Mangrove Capital Partners and the ABRT Venture Fund.
Running from March to August, the Security Startup Challenge 2015 will comprise a preliminary series of two-day workshops in Berlin (Germany), San Francisco (US), Singapore and Moscow (Russia). This will be followed a three-month acceleration program which will include distance team work and two bootcamps in Luxembourg, culminating in a grand finale event at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA).
Online registration for the workshops and the main program is now open at www.SSC2015.org. The closing date for application is 28 April 2015. A special committee will conduct the selection process, identifying the individuals and teams with the most promising, innovative or exciting proposals. In all, 40 places are available at SSC 2015, offering founders of startup projects in cybersecurity and related areas, such as fintech, healthcare, mobile, the Internet of Things, and the Cloud, a chance to build their knowledge and compete for an $80K prize fund and post-program support.
Under the guidance of more than 30 experts, Kaspersky said that participants will gain a deeper knowledge of the cybersecurity industry, extend their business and startup skills, and learn how to harness the two areas to build a successful business. The program offers access to cybersecurity professionals, venture capitalists and seasoned entrepreneurs to help new businesses create a global professional network. While attendance at the workshops is optional and not essential in order to apply for the main program, they will provide participants with an additional advantage in terms of enhanced knowledge and skills, the organiser said.
Cyberthreats have become a global problem and their number and sophistication continues to evolve significantly. Kaspersky Lab currently detects 325,000 new malicious files every day. Last year, the company’s products detected and neutralized a total of 6,167,233,068 threats.
Eugene Kaspersky, chairman and CEO of Kaspersky Lab, says: “As the cyberthreat landscape becomes more and more dangerous, the world needs new ideas, new concepts and new approaches to cybersecurity. As a result, there’s been a significant increase in venture funding of early-stage startups in the industry. Young entrepreneurs today have an excellent chance to build a truly successful company. Technology startups have been massive wealth-generators for their owners and for society as a whole over the last few decades. Our company was a startup not that long ago, and I can confirm that it feels great to fight the bad guys and build your own business from scratch while doing so.”