Every year, in the NeoQUEST organization , we are assisted by fellow security personnel - students and young teachers of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University . Today we are sharing important news for them and their applicants: the Institute of Cybersecurity and Information Protection (ICB) has been created at the Polytechnic Institute !
Read more about what's new for the students of the ICB - under the cut!
A bit of history
The Polytechnic University has always paid special attention to cybersecurity: more than 20 years ago, it was the first civilian university to train information security specialists: in 1997, the Department of Information Security of Computer Systems (ICS) was created. Its alumni include Yandex Security Director, Bloomberg Security Consultant, employees of Kaspersky Lab, Gazprom Neft PJSC, Google, Cisco, Oracle, Siemens.
Years of successful work allowed the IBKS department to become the Graduate School of Cybersecurity and Information Protection, and now - and a separate institution! Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences, laureate of the St. Petersburg Government Prize in the field of education and the RF Government Prize in the field of science and technology, Dmitry Petrovich Zegzhda, was appointed Director of the IKB.
What's new?
1. From informational to CYBERsecurity.
When studying at the ICB, the key emphasis will be placed on cybersecurity as a global trend in the development of the "information security" direction. Cybersecurity deals with a new class of systems (cyber-physical systems, systems of digital production and digital economy, etc.) and implies not only the protection of information, but the protection of complex systems in the "information field", first of all, maintaining their correct functioning under conditions attacks.
2. Practice-oriented learning!
How often do security students complain about the lack of practice and the abundance of theoretical material? Yes, almost regularly! But the students of the IKB will not have to complain - for practice-oriented learning, special “game” virtual polygons will be used, simulating the infrastructure of information, financial and industrial systems.
Working with them, students will acquire skills:
- penetration testing ( penetration testing );
- search for vulnerabilities, their exploitation and elimination;
- countering cyber attacks, including targeted ones;
- application of artificial intelligence methods to real data for solving various information security problems.
We are sure that problems with a practice-oriented approach will definitely not arise: back in 2012, the department (then still a department!) IBKS took an active part in the creation of the first NeoQUEST (for more details on how it was, you can read in the early articles of our blog - about the results of the very first online-stage of CTF and the announcement of the first "Face-to-face bet" ).
During these 8 years of successful collaboration, we managed to increase the NeoQUEST audience more than 5 times, launch cool workshops (last year's drone gun workshop broke all records!) And meet a large number of security enthusiasts. Now every year we bring together information security specialists from all over Russia and a number of foreign countries (Belarus, Armenia, Ukraine) for the final hackquest, and the number of NeoQUEST guests exceeds 200 people.
In addition, IKB closely cooperates with industry representatives, so virtual polygons will simulate the information environment of real objects (modern factories, banking systems, etc.). And the scenarios describing the safety problems that students need to eliminate will repeat the real situations faced by the IKB partners.
Attention to applicants!
The procedure for admission of applicants for 2020 was formed in October 2019, so for now, do not look for an IKB on the website of the SPbPU admission campaign and on State services. But applicants should not worry: everyone who has submitted documents for a specialty starting with "ten" ( 03/10/01, 05/10/01, 05/10/03, 05/10/04 and 04/10/01 ), and successfully passed the competition, will study at the IKB!
Training will be conducted in three areas: bachelor's degree, specialty (yes, there is still a specialty in information security!) And master's degree. And by the way, they promise to increase the reception in the future. Now, in 2020, it is 142 people (not counting the 20 budget places for applicants to the magistracy).
To submit documents to the IKB, you must choose one of the following directions (in the applicant's personal account on the SPbPU website or through the State Service portal):
- 10.03.01 - "Information Security", bachelor's degree;
- 05/10/01 - "Computer Security", specialty;
- 05/10/03 - "Information security of automated systems", specialty;
- 05.10.04 - "Information and analytical security systems", specialty;
- 10.04.01 - "Information Security", Master's degree.
Good luck!
Finally, let us inspire those who have not yet graduated from school, but are already seriously thinking about a career as an information security specialist: according to Rosstat , the direction of "information security" is consistently included in the Top 10 directions, graduates of which work in their specialty.
Of course, for a cybersecurity specialist, university education is just the beginning of an interesting career, and it is possible and necessary to study (study and study again!) Information security all your life, but when you have a solid foundation of practical skills, useful knowledge and skills behind you, it is priceless! Good luck to all applicants-2020!