Skinners’ Academy in Woodberry Grove, London, has been testing its students with the government-backed Cyber Discovery initiative to find any with a particular aptitude for cyber security.
The scheme uses several game-like stages to assess whether students aged between 14 and 18 might have the talent to become cyber security professionals.
Alex Holmes, deputy director of cyber security at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, said that to ensure the UK becomes the “world’s leading digital economy”, it also must be secure. Holmes said cyber attackers can try to cause harm to the UK as a whole using various methods, such as attempting to sabotage the nation’s energy supply or transport infrastructure, and that the best way to prevent such attacks is to have the appropriate protection in place. But the UK needs more young people to take an interest in cyber security as a career and “help to defend the country”, he said.
