AFCEA International Chapter News
CZECH CHAPTER CHAPTER - Oct 01, 2021

European Cybersecurity Challenge Draws Students, Institutions, Industry

Since 2014, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), with the help of the European Commission, has supported the European Cybersecurity Challenge (ECSC) as a part of the European Cyber Security Month (ECSM). Each year, one of the organizers of the national competition in cybersecurity is selected to organize the ECSC in cooperation with ENISA.

'AFCEA Czech chapter has been organizing a national competition in cybersecurity since 2016. The Czech national competition is one of the most successful European competitions. More than 5,000 primary, secondary and university students aged nine to 25 participate in the national competition every year. This was one of the reasons why the Czech Republic was chosen to organize the seventh year of ECSC 2021,' says Petr Jirásek, chairman of the ENISA ECSC Steering Committee and founder of the Czech National Cyber Security Competition, and regional vice president, AFCEA Central Eastern Europe.

The event gathered 271 participants, including 163 contestants supervised by the teams' coaches and steering committee members, coming from 19 countries, including European Union member states and European Free Trade Association countries. Thus, the total number of all participants exceeded 600.

Participating countries included Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Switzerland.
Participants had to solve security-related challenges from domains such as web and mobile security, crypto puzzles, reverse engineering and forensics to test their abilities and challenge their different cybersecurity-related skills in escape rooms.

This year's edition featured the introduction of a new activity to allow participants from different teams, hence from different nationalities, to work together on international cooperation.
The event featured Canada and Slovakia as guests and Norway and Estonia as observers for the first time.

It was not easy to schedule an international event in the time of COVID-19 with hundreds of people and international teams.
'Preparations for the European final took more than two years, with dozens of people taking part in the preparation, including AFCEA volunteers and students who took part in a national competition.

This was also one of the main goals to involve students in the preparation,' says Tomáš Müller, chapter president, and adds: 'The students themselves showed an interest in participating in the organization of such an internationally important event and gaining new experience, and therefore the Czech Republic did not have its competition team to avoid possible conflicts of interest.'

Many partners and state institutions also took part in the organization, for example, the National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NÚKIB), Ministry of Defense, academic institutions, but also commercial partners, including Palo Alto Networks, CISCO Systems, ALEF NULA, ČEZ, CETIN and many others. The newly established Center for Cyber Security, z.ú. (KYBERCENTRUM), which participated in the implementation of some parts of the European finals, also played a role.

KYBERCENTRUM was founded by the chapter this year, and its goal is general education and training of students and teachers in cybersecurity.

Mario Campolargo, directorate general for Informatics (DIGIT) at the European Commission, presented the awards to the winning teams. The ECSC 2021 was successfully completed by Team Germany, closely followed by Poland and Italy.

Juhan Lepassaar, executive director, EU Agency for Cybersecurity, said: 'The cybersecurity capacity of the union heavily relies on a workforce adequate in size and equipped with the right knowledge and skills. The European Cybersecurity Challenge encourages cybersecurity careers and attracts the young talent needed tomorrow to ensure the continuity of the EU efforts dedicated to the cybersecurity of our digital space.'

The winners of the competition will now be designated as ambassadors for the European Cybersecurity Month campaign (https://cybersecuritymonth.eu/). In addition, selected members of the ECSC winning team will also be offered the possibility to experience a traineeship at ENISA.

This year ENISA also introduced a new cyber awareness initiative, the so-called #CyberBecause. The chapter is the long-term national coordinator of ECSM activities and actively prepares awareness and educational events for cyber experts and the general public.
In 2022, ECSC will be organized by Austria, and ENISA will also organize the first International Cybersecurity Challenge (ICC) in Athens, Greece, where teams from all continents will compete, including the U.S. team.

There are other European chapters of AFCEA that are involved in preparing national cybersecurity competitions, which are part of the ECSC. These include, for example, the Slovak chapter. So it is possible that some of the future European finals will be organized again with the participation of AFCEA.

Event Video:

Event Photographs:

The 7th European Cybersecurity Challenge takes place in the competition hall in Prague in October.
The 7th European Cybersecurity Challenge takes place in the competition hall in Prague in October.
Mario Campolargo, directorate general for Informatics at the European Commission, presents at the October event.
Mario Campolargo, directorate general for Informatics at the European Commission, presents at the October event.
Tomas Muller, chapter president, speaks at the event in October.
Tomas Muller, chapter president, speaks at the event in October.

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