After her success at the European Cyber Security Challenge, ex-Kingsbridge Community College student has been awarded the Judy Baker Award.

Also known as the Best Newcomer to Cyber Security Award, it is given to an individual based on their involvement with the Cyber Security Challenge UK and their involvement with the industry as a whole.

Her success does not end there-at a competition called the Masterclass, Sophia won an array of prizes.

To qualify for the masterclass, Sophia had to compete at a face-to-face competition, of which there are five throughout the year. The top competitors from each of those competitions were invited to attend the masterclass which Sophia explains as the “ultimate competition of the year” where the “best of the best” compete against each other.

This year there were 42 contestants, including six which flew over from Singapore. The competitors were split into teams, usually with people they haven’t met before, and faced with security challenges over a two day period.

This year it was based on a shipping industry scenario where Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) networks were being compromised, meaning that the teams had to do a lot of incident response and network monitoring.

They were also given a USB stick with information about the individual on it and had to conduct extensive digital forensics to uncover hidden data and information from the files.

Using what they found, the teams were placed in a mock court room where a member from each team had to act as an expert witness to discuss their findings.

At the Masterclass, Sophia McCall won an array of prizes which will enable her to further enhance her career in this industry. Her prizes included a Block Mode MSc at Royal Holloway in London, a tour of the National Cyber Security Centre, several ethical hacking certificates, VIP passes to a cyber security conference called Blackhat Europe and an invitation to the Secure Summit UK.

“I’m really pleased with my prizes as they are allowing me to pursue my career in cyber security even further, preparing me for industry for when I finish university,” said Sophia.

“The competitions for this year have ended, but should start again early next year-where I will definitely be trying to qualify for both Masterclass and Team UK again! For now I am concentrating on university and finding a placement for my degree”.