The Women on Cyber Singapore Scholarship aims to celebrate exemplary talent, dedication and merit in cybersecurity. With the support of Women on Cyber and Offensive Security, and our media partner MySecurityMedia a total of 10 PEN-200 90 days online course vouchers are to be awarded as part of the OffSec Giving Program.
Five of these scholarships have been awarded to the top performers of the third edition of the CTF for Girls competition held last month.
The CTF Challenges included:
- Web: All about web-based applications.
- Pwn: Binary exploitation and memory corruption.
- HW: Penetrate different hardware systems with your software.
- Reversing: The art of reverse-engineering.
- Forensics: Data recovery and forensics.
- Crypto: Crypto Challenges.
The awards aimed to build a platform to showcase emerging offensive security professionals in Singapore – those who are not afraid to break boundaries and thrive with courage, hard work, and determination into a male-dominated industry.
Dr Magda Chelly, a well-acknowledged Polish Tunisian cybersecurity expert, a highly sought-after keynote speaker, author, and entrepreneur provided an overview of the Women on Cyber scholarship during the Ceremony, supported by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA).
Congratulations to all the CTF for Girls 2021 Challenge winners. This year, the CTF prizes included five prizes and recognized five other players with Tryhackme vouchers – sponsored by Responsible Cyber – to learn hacking further and not get discouraged.
Prized included:
- 90 days OSCP Lab access + AMAZON Gift Voucher 500 SGD + 8 hours penetration testing training with Responsible Cyber
- 90 days OSCP Lab access + AMAZON Gift Voucher 300 SGD + 4 hours penetration testing training with Responsible Cyber
- 90 days OSCP Lab access + 6 months access to Tryhackme + 2 hours penetration testing training with Responsible Cyber
- 90 days OSCP Lab access + 3 months access to Tryhackme + one-hour penetration testing training with Responsible Cyber
- 90 days OSCP Lab access + 1-month access to Tryhackme
The CTF Champion 1st Place is Chua Wei Xuan, a 15-year-old Singaporean girl. Winning Chua Wei Xuan is a security enthusiast, and still is a student.
The participants demonstrated adept knowledge of penetration testing and innovative problem-solving techniques.
In collaboration with the Offensive Security Giving Program, a total of 10 PEN-200 90 days online course vouchers will be awarded in 2021.
Applications for the remaining five scholarships are open on Women on Cyber’s website. Five deserving applicants scored based on their fulfillment of three key criteria –Passion, Merit, and Financial Need – will be reviewed and chosen by a judging panel comprising highly qualified industry professionals from the Cyber Security Agency, Offensive Security, as well as Responsible Cyber Pte. Ltd, and more.
The list of awardees will have the opportunity to embark on their offensive security course and examination, through study groups led by Women on Cyber, and have their achievements published on Women on Cyber’s website.
Dr Magda Chelly, leader and founder of Women on Cyber Singapore Chapter, remarked “I strongly believe in tangible results to make a change. We are building the talent pool for Singapore, through diversity and inclusion initiatives. I remain very proud of all the honourees and continue to envision other similar initiatives in the future.”
Each year, Women on Cyber (Women on Cyber Singapore chapter) awards a range of scholarships to support female professionals willing to work in the cyber security field or young female graduates in computer sciences or other similar studies. These awards — mostly professional cyber security certifications and courses — represent a concerted effort to address the underrepresentation of women in the field of information security by attracting high-quality new female entrants into the industry.
In the first quarter of 2021, two PEN-200 90 days online course vouchers – sponsored by Responsible Cyber Pte. Ltd., a cybersecurity start-up in Singapore, supporting Small and Medium Enterprises –had been awarded. The award winners were Andrea Thniah, and Jia Wen Zheng.
Andrea has already received her certification and is officially an Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP). Jia Wen is in the midst of receiving her certification.
The scholarships provide potential female information security professionals with the necessary support and resources and helps them prepare for a fulfilling career in this critical sector. Initiatives like these go a long way towards increasing diversity within the cyber security workforce in the long run.
