BUSINESS
Irish developer wins top TechEd prize
05-07-2004
by Craig Liddell
An Irish software developer has won a major security developers' contest held as part of Microsoft-backed TechEd.
Eamon O'Tuathail, a .NET software architect who operates Clipcode Knowledge Services in Dublin, beat over 60,000 international software developers to win the USD10,000 (EUR8,100) prize. On Friday, he was announced as the winner of the contest, which was held at TechEd Amsterdam, a Microsoft-backed conference aimed at educating European IT professionals about the software giant's new products and updates.
"This award shows that I know my stuff when it comes to IT security," O'Tuathail told ElectricNews.Net. He hopes the award will help to open doors and boost the bottom line.
Based in Dun Laoghaire, Clipcode is a one-man operation that provides mostly .NET application security consultancy and training to clients across Europe.
Microsoft organised the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) Security Developer Championship to heighten the awareness of security among software developers writing for its platform.
The contest involved 60,000 international software developers competing in multiple rounds to determine who is the very best security software developer. The initial rounds of the competition were held on the Internet and the seven finalists were invited to the weeklong Microsoft TechEd Conference in Amsterdam.
The competition was modeled on a boxing match, with the finals filmed in a television studio resembling a boxing ring, and consisted of multiple "bouts." Held on 26 June, It involved press-the-buzzer style questions on advanced areas of software security. After each round a contestant was "knocked out."
O'Tuathail ended up as the last man standing and won the grand prize.
The award caps a long career in IT security. O'Tuathail graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1988. His career began at Siemens in Germany and he later worked for a small scientific software company in Paris. In the mid-1990s his returned to Ireland and worked as a contractor with Siemens Ireland's security software subsidiary, SSE. Then he started Clipcode to offer services in the specialist niche of advanced software development.
He plans to use the prize money to have a holiday in one of his favourite destinations, Naples, Florida.
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