Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), a global leader in security software, announced today its participation as a diamond sponsor of Carnegie Mellon University's annual "capture the flag" computer security game challenge, picoCTF2014. Geared towards middle and high school students, Trend Micro's participation demonstrates the company's commitment to educating young people on safe and innovative ways computer security can be used in our daily lives.

"We are honored and excited to be able to help cultivate the next generation of cybersecurity professionals," said Lynette Owens, global director, Internet Safety for Kids & Families Program, Trend Micro. "The contest is designed to encourage an understanding of computer security among students. We believe this is a critical part of promoting digital literacy among our nation's youth."

The game consists of a series of challenges requiring participants to reverse engineer, break, hack or decrypt a computer to solve the challenge. Computers in the challenges are set up specifically to be hacked, making it an excellent way to get hands-on cybersecurity experience.

picoCTF is a collaboration of the Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP) of Cylab and Team Daedalus of the Entertainment Technology Center. Both teams are student-run and based at Carnegie Mellon University.

The online competition enables students in middle school and high school (6th - 12th grade) in the United States to form teams of five or fewer students. Teams must be associated with both a teacher/adviser and an academic institution. With four levels that range from beginner to advanced, the competition is ideal for students with a basic understanding and background in computer science.

According to picoCTF, this year's challenge features a new storyline in which participants are informed that their father has disappeared under strange circumstances, and a flash drive is their only clue to his whereabouts. Participants will need all of their computer security skills to uncover and decipher critical evidence before it is too late.

"We believe that our competition touches on the basic elements of computer security," said David Brumley, professor at Carnegie Mellon and project lead for picoCTF. "Working in tandem with Trend Micro has made it really exciting for the students to know that they have an industry partner to help foster and cultivate their interest in technology security."

The eligible teams will be able monitor their progress on a scoreboard once the competition starts. The winning teams are those with the highest score.

Winners will be announced within a week of the competition's completion. The competition runs from October 27 to November 7. To learn more about picoCTF and how to participate visit https://picoctf.com/.

Trend Micro's Commitment to the Internet Safety of Kids and Families

To support its vision of making the world safe for exchanging digital information, Trend Micro aspires to make a difference by using its expertise to make the world at large a better place. Trend Micro has made a commitment to make the Internet a great place for young people around the world through its world-wide employee volunteer program, grants and donations to eligible organizations, and partnerships with those who share its vision and mission. For Trend Micro's free Internet safety tips, tools and advice, visit our Internet Safety for Kids and Families page.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Built on 26 years of experience, our solutions for consumers, businesses and governments provide layered data security to protect information on mobile devices, endpoints, gateways, servers and the cloud. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. All of our solutions are powered by cloud-based global threat intelligence, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure, and are supported by more than 1,200 threat experts around the globe. For more information, visit TrendMicro.com.