The First ‘Cybersecurity World Championship’.

I’ve a real soft spot for the disruptive thinking. I also like surprising astounding folks. And I like astounding folks in proper, worthy ways. I like it when what we do makes jaws drop; when folks don’t believe – but try anyway, then they get to like it, and then they love it.

Ok, all a bit abstract so far. Let me be a bit more concrete…

Our latest jaw-dropper is… a desktop simulator game for cybersecurity! Never heard of that before? You wouldn’t – it’s never been done before!

It goes by the name of KIPS – which stands for Kaspersky Interactive Protection Simulation. It’s a business teamwork cybersecurity strategy simulation game, which lasts around two hours and is intended to encourage initiative and analysis skills and an understanding of cybersecurity measures. Must say, I wasn’t expecting KL to enter the gaming market – ever; but why not, if it gets the messages across best? And we’ve gone from green (i.e., inexperienced) gaming startup to green (i.e., KL corporate green:) full-fledged gaming provider in no time at all.

And this Thursday – December 1 – we’re holding the first world championship on KIPS!

No joke folks. This is really happening. I’m so proud of it I often tell folks about it – and even our own KLers whom I tell look at me funny as if I’m pulling their leg. Not at all! This is serious. Serious… gaming! Serious… because it’s all about raising cyber-awareness – nothing could be more serious.

The KIPS Championship will be completely online and with a live video stream.

Already more than 400 teams from 39 countries have registered to take part, and last-minute entrants are signing up as we speak. The geographical spread of the teams is most impressive: the anti-cybercrime business simulation will be played by teams from Japan to Nepal, from the USA to Cambodia, from Chile to Bangladesh. And all because the game is useful, but also fun at the same time.

Photo from here

The intellectual contest will be streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, and also on Twitсh – so get involved!

So that it’ll be convenient for everyone – no matter where they are on the planet (unlike the Olympics, the World Cup, and other such live events:) the championship will take place at three separate times – convenient for Asian-Pacific, European/Middle Eastern/African, and American teams. Choose one – or watch all three in a row! More details about the live streams and channels can be found here.

I hope that one day KIPS will overtake Monopoly, chess, checkers and backgammon to become the most popular game in the world and finally make its way to become an official sport for the Olympic. Just kidding :).

To date, some 10,000 folks have already played the game – that’s plenty considering the format: for professionals and management.

Currently there exist four scenarios of the game – for industrial, corporate, financial, and e-government environments. For the championship though we’ll use the corporate scenario alone.

Photo from here

We often say that the world’s changing really fast – that in the future there’ll be such unbelievable changes taking place that the world will be unrecognizable from the one we know now. We say it often as it’s true. Thing is – the future’s already here, and those unbelievable changes have already occurred; at least – many of them. Everything’s digital. In 20 years’ time even… hammers will be ‘smart’, while toilet paper will purchasable only by having the ‘right connections’.

Threats and problems in this world are also increasingly digital. Not ‘will be’ – ‘already are’. And so we need to understand how to deal with them. We need to be ready to protect ourselves. And it’s simply great when that can be done while having fun, with no casualties or damage done. For example, with KIPS.

So join in the fun! Turn on, tune in, and drop the cyber-ignorance!

PS: details on how to try KIPS, plus how to take part in upcoming championships are available here.