Zain invests in youth cyber capabilities to safeguard and enhance digital future
KUWAIT: Zain Kuwait has supported the Kuwait Technical College (ktech) Cyberthon challenge, held in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. The effort comes as part of a pioneering national initiative aimed at equipping students and youth with cybersecurity skills and enhancing their ability to protect the country’s digital infrastructure, in line with Kuwait’s digital transformation objectives. Zain took part in the closing ceremony, attended by Acting Undersecretary at the Ministry of Education Mohammad Al-Khaldi, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees at ktech Professor Ayman Al-Zayed, Vice President for Student Affairs and Registration Noura Ayman Boodai and Corporate Relations Department Manager at Zain Kuwait Hamad Al-Musaibeeh.
The event was also attended by ktech leadership, members of the academic and administrative bodies, and representatives from both the public and private sectors. This reflected the status of the challenge as a national platform that embodies the partnership between education and the private sector in serving digital national security priorities. Zain’s support of the Cyberthon challenge came as an extension of its ongoing strategic partnership with ktech, which includes supporting a wide range of student, academic, cultural, and sports activities, as well as employment and training programs organized by the college throughout the academic year. This aligns with the company’s pivotal role in empowering national talents in technology and encouraging students to pursue technical specializations that are in high demand in the market.
Group photo of the partners and participating students.
The Cyberthon challenge brought together ktech students specializing in cybersecurity and high school students from various educational districts, in an integrated model that links pre-university education with applied higher education and brings students closer to the requirements of the job market in vital and technical sectors. Participants completed an intensive training program followed by final competitions that featured a strong spirit of challenge, teamwork, critical thinking, and decision-making.
The challenge, titled Defend the Future, focused on equipping students with practical skills that simulate real cyber environments through a set of advanced tasks in threat analysis, ethical penetration testing (ethical hacking), protecting systems and critical infrastructure, crisis management, and rapid response to cyberattacks. These challenges were carried out in an advanced virtual environment overseen by a group of experts and specialists in the field, ensuring the development of skills capable of dealing with the growing cyber threats worldwide.
Today, cybersecurity is considered one of the most important pillars for sustaining the digital economy and protecting the sensitive data of governments, institutions, and individuals. This makes investment in building national human capabilities in this field a strategic priority. Zain places the support of specialized educational initiatives such as the Cyberthon challenge at the heart of its responsibility towards the community, driven by its belief that the first line of defense in the digital age starts in classrooms, labs, and learning communities that embrace students and youth at an early age.
Zain is committed to being an active partner for educational and academic institutions in Kuwait by establishing strategic partnerships with universities, colleges, and institutes and participating in career fairs and platforms dedicated to attracting national talents. This comes in addition to providing practical training programs and professional development opportunities that help students and fresh graduates integrate into the market, especially in advanced technical fields such as cybersecurity, cloud computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.