Ambizione Italia for Cybersecurity: Challenge at the University of Salerno
Ethical hacking (or "penetration testing") allows cybersecurity professionals (“ethical hackers”) to identify and resolve IT system, network and application vulnerabilities, using the same techniques and tools that could be employed by a malicious hacker. The main objective is to identify and correct any weaknesses in a system before they are exploited by cybercriminals. Ethical hackers employ a series of methodologies to identify vulnerabilities. These include code analysis, penetration tests, social engineering, data collection, and the analysis of network configurations. Once any weaknesses are identified, ethical hackers collaborate with the system proprietors to solve and improve its general security.
Ethical hackers operate with the full permission of system proprietors and in the respect of law and ethical standards, guaranteeing privacy and the confidentiality of any information collected during testing activities.
On Wednesday, June 7 (2-5 pm), young students will participate in a competition of ethical hackers at the University of Salerno, one of the first universities to organize a degree programme on Penetration Testing and Ethical Hacking aimed at educating cybersecurity experts. The challenge, held as part of Programme Ambizione Italia for Cybersecurity promoted with Microsoft, is organised in collaboration with the University of Salerno Department of Computer Science that has recently been awarded as an excellence of Central-Southern Italy.”
The challenge is part of the incoming orientation activities at the Department of Computer Science and involves two high schools - G. Marconi from Nocera Inferiore and Galilei-Di Palo from Salerno – that participated in the educational sessions.
Professors Delfina Malandrino and Christian Carmine Esposito from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Salerno coordinated the educational activities and the final challenge. Moreover, Professor Filomena Ferrucci will also participate in the final challenge. In particular, she teaches Software Engineering for the BA programme and Software Project Management and Education in Computer Science for the master’s programme.
The welcome message will be given by Social and Youth Policy Councillor Paola de Roberto for the City of Salerno.
The first Hacker vs Hacker Competition was held last February in collaboration with the Rome Campus Bio-medico. It involved 600 high school students from universities in Lazio and Rome in a course as “Junior Ethical Hackers,” 50 of which were selected for the final hackathon. The course was conceived and implemented with Professor Roberto Setola, Delegate of the Degree Programme in Industrial Engineering, Scientific Director of the 2nd level master’s degree in Homeland Security: Systems, Methods, and Tools for Security and Management” and Director of the Laboratory of Complex Systems and Security.
