Team Europe wins the International Cybersecurity Challenge 2024!

Reaching the highest score in both the Capture the Flag (CTF) as well as the Attack / Defense challenges, Team Europe continued its success story in the competition, followed by Team Asia in the second place and Team Oceania in third place. Congratulations to our Team who this year comprised of: Louis Dasnois (Belgium), Odysseas Stavrou (Cyprus), Alexander Skovsende (Denmark), Astrid Bek (Denmark), Stepan Fedotov (Finland), Jan-Niklas Sohn (Germany), Yannik Marchand (Germany), Nikolaos Mourousias (Greece), Cillian Collins (Ireland), Vincenzo Bonforte (Italy), Rick de Jager (Netherlands), Maja Kądziołka (Poland), Szymon Borecki (Poland), Mariana Rio Costa (Portugal), Dragoș Albăstroiu (Romania), Andraž Strgar (Slovenia), Philippe Dourassov (Switzerland). 

The ENISA Executive Director, Juhan Lepassaar, highlighted: “Supporting the younger generation of cybersecurity talent constitutes the key viable solution to effectively address the cybersecurity skills gap. The International Cybersecurity Challenge showcases the collaborative efforts of ENISA with the international cybersecurity community to promote skills development and knowledge-sharing in the field across the world.” 

This year’s edition of the International Cybersecurity Challenge (ICC) took place from 28 October to 1 November and brought together in Santiago, Chile some of the best cybersecurity talent in the world to compete and test their cybersecurity skills. A total of 7 teams from Africa, Asia, Canada, Europe, Latin America, Oceania, and the United States took part in the competition, representing more than 80 countries.  

During the three-day event, players competed in solving complex cybersecurity puzzles, involving classic Jeopardy challenges – such as cryptography, reverse engineering, forensic, web exploitation – that are updated with contemporary software and technology challenges, like cloud, AI, Operational Technology (OT) environments, mobile applications and IoT. ICC also features a competition in Attack and Defense, where players are requested to defend vulnerable services through patching while exploiting vulnerabilities of other teams and eventually steal flags.  

ENISA has coordinated the selection process and preparation of Team Europe, including training bootcamps, a qualifier, and online training sessions, with the five coaches of the team, who have been instrumental in the Team’s success. We would like to thank for all their efforts: Jan Gocník, Mario Polino, Sanne Maasakkers, Pedro Adao, Carlos Polop Martin. 

This year, ENISA was supported by 50 volunteers who contributed by delivering valuable trainings and authoring challenges. We would like to thank all our volunteers for their contributions and we hope to continue growing the community of cybersecurity experts who assist in training Team Europe. In particular, ENISA would like to thank our trainers in the bootcamps: Athanasios Vasileios Grammatopoulos, Andrea Biondo, Davide Maiorca, Erlantz Saenz, Javier Jimenez, Marco Squarcina, Richard Weiss, Robin Jadoul. 

Finally, ENISA would like to thank Accenture and Ubitech for their unwavering support this year.  

ICC is the first global Capture the Flag event (CTF), addressed to aspiring cybersecurity talent across the world, with the aim to raise awareness and foster the development of cybersecurity skills and competences. The initiative was first designed and launched by ENISA, together with regional and international organisations back in 2021. Since then, ICC has gradually become an incubator of cybersecurity expertise.  

Next up: Kunoichi Cyber Games 

Following the bootcamp conducted alongside the European Cybersecurity Challenge in October, a dedicated all-female Team Europe will fly to Tokyo, Japan to compete in Kunoichi Cyber Games on 14-15 November 2024. The initiative aims to highlight diversity and further encourage female participation in the cybersecurity field.  

Further Information 

Meet Team Europe for International Cybersecurity Challenge 2024! — ENISA 

Home - International CyberSecurity Challenge 

International Cybersecurity Challenge (ICC) — ENISA 

Contact 

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