Hats off to Team Europe - Winners of the 1st International Cybersecurity Challenge!

Also available in:  

The 1st International Cybersecurity Challenge (ICC) concluded on Friday 17^th June after two days of intensive and relentless competition between the teams to master this year’s cybersecurity challenges. The team who managed to solve most challenges and the winner of the ICC 2022 is Team Europe, followed by Team Asia in second place and Team USA in third place. The complete rankings of the seven regional teams can be viewed here. Team Europe scored the most points in the set of challenges linked to Jeopardy, while Team Asia was the highest scorer in the so-called Attack & Defence challenges. The competition took place in Athens, Greece.

The two captains from Team Europe Danique Lummen (NL) and Nuno Miguel da Silva Sabino (PT) stated: "We are really happy to be part of this fantastic event. It was great to compete in the ICC with all the other great teams from all over the world. We are also very happy and proud that we won the first place and we look forward to be part of the next ICC in the US”.

European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas delivered the award to the winning team, stating: “The world needs more cybersecurity professionals. Our society needs more people with the right security skills to protect our democracies, our values, our interconnected world. So today we meet this cybersecurity skills shortage challenge with another challenge, the International Cybersecurity Challenge competition. This competition is a great opportunity to raise awareness on the need for more cybersecurity experts in the field. It is an example of how by working together we can address the cybersecurity skills gap and bring our youth to the forefront of finding solutions to shield us from today’s ever-increasing threats.”

ENISA’s Executive Director Juhan Lepassaar, added: “Young talents are the assets we should invest in if we want to make sure to have highly skilled and trained cyber experts in the future. They are the ones who will keep our digital world secure. I am very glad to see the international cybersecurity community engaged with ENISA to promote cybersecurity skills, awareness and education. This is one of the ways to build and sustain our cybersecurity workforce.

The competition concluded with the intervention by Professor Bart Preneel of the KU University of Leuven who stressed how pleased he was to see the enthusiasm, curiosity and dedication of the next generation of cybersecurity experts:

“It is in their hands to build a better digital future that reflects our common values and to make the world a better place. “

The organisers of the ICC and ENISA would like to thank European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas, Professor Bart Preneel of the KU University of Leuven, Mr. Athanasios Staveris-Polykalas, General Secretary of Telecommunications & Posts of the Hellenic Republic - Ministry of Digital Governance, and Mr. Antonio “T” Scurlock, Deputy Chief Learning Officer (CLO) of the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), for their support and participation, and our thanks also go to the sponsors who provided the awards: Accenture, Census-labs, Cyber Noesis, ISACA, Netcompany Intrasoft, Trend Micro, UbiTech, Yes We Hack and the Cybersecurity National Lab.

ENISA is extremely grateful to the partners involved in the challenge, to the trainers of the teams and to all the experts and staff who supported the organisation of the event.

Next steps

The next ‘’International Cybersecurity Challenge’’(ICC) can be pencilled in your calendars in August 2023. It will be hosted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and CISA in the United States of America.

If you are interested in participating in the ICC 2023, you can find more information on the dedicated ICC website.

Further information

ENISA press release – Vice-President Schinas announces Team EU for the first Cyber World Cup

ICC website - International Cybersecurity Challenge

ICC trailer video - 1st International Cybersecurity Challenge

ENISA report – Capture the flags competitions’’(CTFs)

Contacts:

For questions related to the press and interviews, please contact press(at)enisa.europa.eu

Stay updated - subscribe to RSS feeds of both ENISA news items & press releases!

News items:

http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/news-items/news-wires/RSS

PRs:

http://www.enisa.europa.eu/media/press-releases/press-releases/RSS