Cyprus’ national cybersecurity team finished 24th out of 42 teams at the European Cybersecurity Challenge in Germany, improving on last year’s result as ten young competitors tested their skills against some of the world’s emerging cybersecurity talent.

The Cypriot team collected 3,277.21 points in Bochum, according to the official results, moving up from 28th place in 2025, when the competition was held in Warsaw, Poland.

This year’s event, which took place from October 12 to 16, brought together more than 400 young competitors, aged between 14 and 25, from 35 European countries and seven invited guest nations.

Sweden claimed first place, followed by Finland and Austria, while the US was named the highest-ranking guest country.

Organised with the support of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), the competition puts participants through a series of practical challenges designed to test how well they can identify and tackle cyber threats.

Rather than simply answering technical questions, contestants must find weaknesses in computer systems, solve security problems and protect their own networks from attacks.

The competition’s two main scored categories are Jeopardy, which involves challenges in areas such as cryptography, web security and reverse engineering, and Attack-Defence, where teams must secure their own systems while attempting to identify vulnerabilities in those of their opponents.

This year’s programme also introduced a separate offline challenge, known as CTF Unplugged.

For Cyprus, the journey began in August, when the ten members of the national team were selected through the Cyprus Cyber Security Challenge, held online from August 2 to 9.

The national competition is open to young people from different backgrounds, including school pupils, university students, researchers, self-taught cybersecurity enthusiasts and young professionals.

The Cypriot delegation was led by Marios Kailis, alongside Christos Falas, Joseph Modestou, Christodoulos Sotiriou, Stylianos Anastasiou, Alexandros Poullas, Giorgos Voutouris, Giorgos Mavronicolas, Stylianos Stylianou and Evangelos Lioudakis.

Their preparation was coordinated by the Cyprus Computer Society (CCS) in cooperation with volunteer mentors from CyberMouflons, who provided specialist training, simulated cyberattacks and practical exercises based on the competition’s Capture the Flag format.

The initiative also received institutional backing from the Office of the Commissioner of Communications, through the Digital Security Authority, as well as the Defence Ministry, the Education Ministry and Cyprus Police.

Support from the private sector and academia came from Deloitte, European University Cyprus, Frederick University, Grant Thornton, Odyssey Cybersecurity, Qsecure and XM.