The National Crime Agency, GCHQ and InfoSec Skills Ltd are embarking on a new scheme to help close the national ‘skills gap’ in information security.

Together they have produced an ISM Skills Draft which opened to the UK public yesterday. It will train Britain’s top information security talent and offer them the chance to compete at the Cyber Security Challenge Masterclass where contenders will fight against a cyber-terrorist group. The best performers will then be offered more than £8,500 (Around $14,000) of free e-learning training programmers.

In May, the Cyber Security Challenge had also launched its 2014/2015 programmer of online and face-to-face cyber games aimed at inspiring the most gifted British security amateurs. The latest ISM Skills Draft project is designed to find a mixture of talent, including potential information security managers.

The InfoSec Skills ISM Skills Draft is based on a set of the real BCS (the Chartered Institute of IT) examinations. The most successful candidate in all four of the challenges will win a five day eLearning course of their choice and an entry to one of the Challenge’s face-to-face cyber battles whereby the winning group of online defenders will be selected to enter the master-class final next year.

InfoSec Skills Ltd CEO Terry Neal said that the aim of the Skills Draft Assessment is for candidates to hopefully see “how broad information security really is and that it’s not just deep technical skills that are required by the UK cyber security industry”.

He added: “If you can combine a passion for security with commercial business and management savviness you can be a massive asset to the profession.”

Via: scmagazineuk