The journey from cheat codes to cybersecurity
A student of General Education School No. 3 named after Zhylkyaidar uulu Tilekmat Ake from the city of Karakol, Issyk-Kul region, independently engages in website and game development and studies the fundamentals of information security. Falil Minibaev's interest in technology emerged in the third grade when he began studying PC architecture and the Python programming language. The young developer's first program was a calculator, and the stimulus for learning was an interest in how cheat codes work in computer games.
The student learned about his victory in the "IT-Navigator of Kyrgyzstan" online olympiad through the Altyn Tuyun Academy branch. He prepared for the competition at home independently, spending several hours every evening studying cybersecurity topics. According to Falil, the tasks in the qualifying stage focused primarily on information security issues.
"I thought I had accumulated enough knowledge, so I decided to participate. I prepared for the olympiad independently at home. I searched for information about the competition on the internet and studied topics related to cybersecurity. I practiced almost every evening from 18:00 to 23:00."
Context
Falil Minibaev was born on January 29, 2012, in Karakol, the administrative center of the Issyk-Kul region. His long-term goal is to create his own IT company specializing in digital systems protection.
