MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC), the world’s leading cyber security company, today announced it is collaborating with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Africa Teen Geeks organization to host a three-day hackathon from July 9-11, 2018 at Symantec’s Mountain View campus. UNODC is a global leader in the fight against illicit drugs, international crime and terrorism, and Africa Teen Geeks is a South African non-profit organization that provides computer science training in schools and underserved communities.

The hackathon will focus on criminal justice and crime prevention, allowing students to develop educational games that teach values around criminal justice to their peers.

The Symantec-sponsored hackathon is the final round of competition for the winners of three regional hackathons that took place in South Africa, Indonesia and Boliviaearlier in the year. Following these contests, 25 secondary school students were selected from amongst the three countries as winners and invited to travel to Silicon Valleyfor the final hackathon. In addition to the students, members of UNODC, South Africa government representatives, chaperones and mentors will all be in attendance. Symantec Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Cappellanti-Wolf will speak at the event.

“We’re thrilled to host these bright young minds on Symantec’s campus,” said Cappellanti-Wolf. “As a world-leading cyber security organization, it’s exciting to watch the next generation of computer science professionals improve their coding skills and develop products for the purpose of crime prevention.”

The hackathon is part of the Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, which came out of the 13^th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice held in Qatar in 2015. Under the Doha Declaration, UNODC’s Education for Justice (E4J) initiative was developed to create and disseminate education materials in UNODC-mandated areas of crime prevention and criminal justice across the primary, secondary and tertiary education levels.

The E4J initiative helps educators teach the next generation to better understand and address problems that can undermine the rule of law and encourage students to actively engage in their communities and future professions. The hackathon encourages this engagement by allowing students to play a hands-on role in developing educational games that focus on justice and law issues.

For media interested in attending the hackathon, please email [email protected] for a press pass.