New campaign seeks Denmark’s top hacker talent

If you can’t beat ’em, get them to join you: Ubisoft and University of Copenhagen team up for original IT recruiting concept

In connection with the release of its new computer game ‘Watch Dogs 2’, game developer Ubisoft has launched a campaign in co-operation with the University of Copenhagen (KU) aimed at getting more young Danes to study IT.

The campaign, ‘Denmark needs more hackers’, allows people to test their hacker skills and win tickets to the world’s largest digital festival, ‘DreamHack’ in Sweden.

“It is important to Danish society to educate IT talents who can challenge  increasing IT crime and understand the new forms of attacks from cyberspace,” said Ken Friis Larsen, an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science at KU.

“So we are very positive about this campaign, which will hopefully bring even more IT talents into the light.”

READ MORE: Danish intelligence agency to start ‘hacker academy’ to fight cyber warfare

Can you hack it?
According to a recent government report, Denmark will be short of 19,000 IT professionals by 2030 – a prognosis that could seriously hinder the nation’s ability to prevent cybercrime.

In the online hacker test, prospective talents can test their hacking acumen through four levels that gradually increase in difficulty. The top hacker wins two tickets to DreamHack.

Read more about the campaign, which will last until 23:59 on November 29, and take the test here.

Earlier this year, the Danish security and intelligence service PET announced plans to recruit IT talents interested in helping the Danish state with its counter-cyber espionage.