Microsoft announces Call for Entries for 2016 Build The Shield Contest in India

Running for third time in a row, the contest provides students a competitive hands-on hacking experience coupled with real-life scenarios, wherein the participating teams defend theirs while attack competitors' servers to emerge as the winner. Open to graduates or undergraduates pursuing major in Computer Science, Information Technology or Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), the contest runs in two stages – Qualifiers and National Finale.

Announcing the call for entries, Suvabrata Sinha, Director, Information Security Risk Management, Microsoft India, said, “We are excited to kick-start the 2016 edition of our ‘Build The shield’ contest. This unique platform is an effort by Microsoft to share its passion for building robust cyber security ecosystem. We view this contest as an opportunity to engage in a fun way with some of the best and brightest future security professionals on a topic which is crucial in today’s mobile-first, cloud-first world where cyberattacks are rapidly growing and evolving in both scope and sophistication. The enthusiasm and response from students toward the contest have been overwhelming over the last two years, and we look forward to replicating that success this year, and beyond.”

The contest begins with online qualifiers, further to which the winning teams visit Microsoft Hyderabad campus for grand finale.  They compete against each other for the final challenge, hear from security leaders on Microsoft’s idea of information security, get a tour of the Microsoft campus and indulge in fun games.

The contest is also an opportunity for participants to meet students from different colleges, compete with challenging teams and brainstorm to fight the security battle. Winners of the grand finale receive pre-placement offers from Microsoft to pursue an exciting career with the company, along with other exciting prizes.

Build The Shield contest last year saw more than 290 teams and 1000+ students participate in the online qualifiers stage. Of these, 50 teams were shortlisted for the national finale at Hyderabad, who battled for the top three positions.