The winners have been announced of the Gov-X Innovation Challenge, a three-month challenge that saw teams of young innovators working to overcome cybersecurity and online risks.
The challenge was a public-private sector collaboration in which over 90 ideas were submitted in March this year, and the top eight teams then entered a qualifying round where they were mentored by some of South Africa’s top cybersecurity experts.
Working with the CyberSecurity Hub and the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies, the University of the Western Cape: Future-Innovation Lab partnered with KnowBe4, TrendMicro, BCX, Bi-Technologies, Vox Telecom, NClose, Black Rhino, and Bi-Tech Africa to host the Gov-X Innovation Challenge.
Participants in the challenge set out to address three key issues:
Provide a national competency via the National Computer Security Incident Response team (CSIRT).
To prevent and curb online gender-based violence and provide assistance to victims.
* Raise awareness initiatives for citizens and create general cybersecurity awareness within communities and raise the profile of cybersecurity issues.
The winning team, which receive R100 000 to further its idea, is Hack South. Team lead Rebecca Isherwood says the group plans to equip children to protect themselves against cyber risk through a gamified learning experience simulating the real world. “We hope to leave no child behind and make a difference to children and their communities.”
The second prize of R30 000 went to team Ex Machina for their idea for an interactive learning platform to educate users to be safer online; and the third prize of R10 000 was awarded to team Edu [1st] for their plan to build a text recognition engine to alert the authorities when trigger words are used online, so helping protect the victims of gender based violence.
Stephen Osler, co-founder and Business Development Director at Nclose, says that in addition to prize money, participants in the challenge stood a chance of being awarded an internship at Nclose. He says three internships will be awarded – one in cybersecurity operations, one in cybersecurity defence and one in cybersecurity offence – and that any of the challenge participants were eligible to apply.
Josh Ramsey, co-founder of BeInTouch.org.za, adds that a number of participants who had requested ongoing mentorship would also continue to be mentored by his organisation.
Noting the lack of cybersecurity skills in South Africa and across the continent, Anna Collard, senior vice-president: content strategy and evangelist at KnowBe4 Africa, says the challenge had been organised both to find innovative approaches for cybersecurity response, and to inspire more people to enter the cybersecurity industry.