Team Germany has won this year’s European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC) narrowly beating France in a hectic and competitive final.
This year’s final of the annual event took place at London’s Tobacco Dock on Tuesday, and was hosted by the Cyber Security Challenge UK.
The competition saw 17 teams from all over Europe coming together to test the skills of young cybersecurity enthusiasts.
Each team consists of ten members five juniors aged between 14-20 and five seniors aged 21-25. While each team is allowed “management”, the head coaches are restricted from assisting during the completion.
An array of tasks make up the challenges in the competition, with Capture the Flag (CTF) a large component of the event scoring.
CTF is a hacking competition where different teams of hackers compete to defend and attack networks and computers using specified software and techniques.
European Cyber Security Challenge: New Tests
This year’s competition also saw the addition of a challenge in which teams had to enter a locked room containing a bomb that needed to be defused. Points are awarded for six tasks in the physical challenge, with a bonus included if the team can pass all six.
The first obstacle that had to be overcome was a digital keypad on the front door.
Most teams breezed past this moving quickly into the room, where they had to pick the locks on tool boxes and the bomb itself. Some lost points because they missed a security alarm panel just inside the door hiding behind a coat.
The UK team had been in the lead entering into the second day of the completion, but the pressure from Germany and France never let off, with a vocal French team cheering every time they completed a task, adding more points to their total. In the end the UK team earned a respectable third place.
Cyber Security Challenge UK
The event was hosted and planned by the Cyber Security Challenge UK which is a series of national competitions that gamify cyber security skillset challenges, with the aim of drawing in amateur coders and video gamers to the cyber security profession.
See Also: 28 UK Amateurs Compete to Hack a Bank in Cyber Security Challenge
Running at the same time was Cyber Re:coded an event that helps young people establish connections with cybersecurity industry workers and companies.
Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries, Margot James commented in an emailed statement on the event that: “The UK is home to a booming cybersecurity sector and it is fantastic to see Cyber Security Challenge UK inspiring our talent of the future.”
She added: “From security software developer to incident response, this industry offers exciting roles for people who have a natural aptitude in problem solving and good communication skills. I encourage anyone interested to attend and see if they’ve got what it takes.”
