For the 5th consecutive year, ECSC 2019 was organized from October 9 to 11, in Bucharest at the Palace of the Parliament, the heaviest building and the second largest building in the world. Athens, October 14, 2019 – The major pan-European cybersecurity competition European Cyber Security Challenge 2019 (ECSC19), which took place in Bucharest, Romania, was completed this year.
The Romanian team was the big winner of the competition, taking 1st place, followed by Italy and Austria. Greece, with its ten-member team, came in 12th place out of a total of 20 countries that participated in the competition. The overall final ranking of all countries is available through the scoreboard on the official competition page https://europeancybersecuritychallenge.eu/leaderboard
The organizer and winner, Romania, managed to hold a high-quality competition, setting the bar high for the following years. This year's competition brought together around 200 young talents from 20 countries who were invited to demonstrate their skills in security in the areas of web and mobile security, crypto puzzles, reverse engineering, forensics and escape rooms. Participants also had to make public presentations to a jury of five experts in the field of cybersecurity.
The ECSC 2019 competition, which is an initiative of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), is supported by the Ministry of Digital Governance, and the responsibility for the Greek participation lies with the Department of Digital Systems of the University of Piraeus.
In a rapidly changing world, young people hold the key to innovation. The ENISA European Cybersecurity Competition ECSC 2019 was created with this philosophy in mind to encourage young people to pursue a career in cybersecurity. Every year, something unique is created, connecting young minds to shape the future and improve lives through technology. What’s more, ECSC falls during October, which is Cybersecurity Awareness Month .
"Every year we set new high goals for a good position in the competition. However, our main goal through this initiative is to search for new talents in the field of cybersecurity, through a series of demanding tests and training sessions that begin immediately after the end of each annual event. These young people constitute the workforce of tomorrow in this field both in Greece and abroad. For three years now that the University has been the official representative body in Greece, it has managed through this process to highlight talents, the majority of whom are making a career in Greek and European companies in the field. We are satisfied with the performance of the Greek National team in this year's competition. The National Mission, which was renewed to a very large extent this year, managed to meet the very high demands of the competition process, worthily facing technologically advanced and populous countries, earning the respect and recognition of all. I would like to thank all the members of the mission and especially the contestants for the effort they made throughout the year, so that the team could participate in this year's competition. It is very important to understand the great growth and development that the cybersecurity field is experiencing, worldwide, and to be able to attract more young people and scientists from related fields to work in it, thus contributing to the development of the National economy and the protection of National security. So we will not stop here. It takes perseverance, dedication and vision to win! ", said the leader of the Greek cybersecurity team and professor at the Department of Digital Systems of the University of Piraeus, Christos Xenakis.
The Greek delegation, led by the department's associate professor, Mr. Christos Xenakis, and a group of volunteers involved in the field of cybersecurity, after a long-term testing process, represented our country, consisting of professional and non-professional hackers, security researchers, as well as students involved in hacking and stood out with their performance in the preliminary competition held last April. The next competition will be organized in Vienna, Austria from November 3 to 7, 2020. Save the date and stay tuned to #ECSC2020 and the renewed website www.ecsc.gr
Major supporters in this effort were the Ministry of Digital Governance, as well as the sponsors, who actively support the Greek national cybersecurity team, ensuring the appropriate conditions for its success. More specifically:
Diamond Sponsors: ALGOSYSTEMS, BEWISE, UBITECH
Diamond Transportation Sponsor: Aegean Airlines
Platinum Sponsor: Quest Group (Info Quest Technologies, Uni Systems), Hack The Box, Pylones and Upstream
Silver Sponsor: Cromar Insurance Brokers
Supporters: Cyber Noesis, devolo, The Cube, Yenkee, Athens – Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport
Media Sponsors: Biztech.gr, Epixeiro.gr, Huffington Post, ICTPlus.gr, IT Professional Security, NetFax, Netweek, SecNews, Spoudazo.gr, Tech Matrix
Our national team has its own digital space at www.ecsc.gr where interested parties can be informed about all the details of ECSC 2019.
Additionally, follow the Greek team on social media:
Facebook: Hellenic Team-European Cyber Security Challenge
LinkedIn: European Cyber Security Challenge – Hellenic Team
Twitter: Hellenic Cyber Security Team @ECSCGR
Watch the official ECSC trailer video
The official hashtag of the European Cyber Security Challenge is #ECSC2019
The official website of the event is www.ecsc.eu
About the European Cyber Security Challenge
The first competition took place in October 2015 in Lucerne, Switzerland, with the participation of six teams from EU member states and from countries of the European Free Trade Area. In 2016 the competition was held in Germany with ten national teams, in 2017 the event took place in Málaga, Spain, with fifteen teams, and in 2018 in London with participation from nineteen countries. In the digital age, information security is a top priority worldwide. This is due to the special role information plays in modern society, the economy, production, and geopolitical relations. Considering that attacks targeting information are constantly increasing, aiming both at profit and at destabilizing critical structures, digital security must be ensured and evaluated in every sector and activity, daily. This reality requires better organized structures, larger investments, but mainly a suitably trained workforce. Conducting competitions such as the ECSC provides the right foundation for educating people, especially the youth, who with their knowledge and talent will become the shield of the digital society.
