Mark Drinan, Luke Woodside, and Dr George O’Mahony
A TUS graduate was one of the Irish team of two who scooped gold at the WorldSkills Global Skills Challenge in Cybersecurity 2024 in Australia.
Luke Woodside, a graduate from TUS (Technological University Shannon) and Managing Director of Woodside Networks, and Mark Drinan, a recent graduate from the Cybersecurity Masters at MTU and an engineer at IBM, were guided by Dr. George O’Mahony of Munster Technological University (MTU), and together they overcame fierce competition from several nations renowned for their cybersecurity expertise.
The victory marks the first time an Irish team has triumphed in an official World Skills Competition in Cybersecurity, with Ireland first entering the cybersecurity contest in 2021.
As part of the Global Skills Challenge, the teams were put into the scenario of a real-world cyber-attack on a fictitious company via a rogue malicious USB and insider threat. Over three days the teams had to run digital forensics on an infected end-user computer, each team also had to create reports including a technical brief, a timeline of the cyber-attack, a report for the media and a report for the board of directors. This competition was about accurately identifying what happened and providing real-world preventative measures and recommendations.
Team Ireland is now setting its sights on the upcoming WorldSkills International Cybersecurity Competition (Skill 54) in Lyon this September as part of WorldSkills Team Ireland.
Dr. George O’Mahony said: “This win is a great example of the work Ireland’s cybersecurity academics and experts are doing in preparing young Irish professionals to compete on the world stage. It highlights the calibre of talent being produced and the strong pipeline of skilled cybersecurity professionals available in Ireland. The win is a great boost to the team and a big step along their training and upskilling journey. The work Mark and Luke have put in has been a testament to their drive and determination.”
