Portugal was represented once again in the European Cybersecurity Challenge (ECSC), held in Vienna, Austria, from 13th to 16th September. The team consisted of 10 members, of which 7 are Técnico students, led by professors Pedro Adão (Instituto Superior Técnico) and André Baptista (Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto).

The ECSC is organised by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) that aims to attract young talent and raise awareness in the community, globally, on the education and skills needed in the area of cybersecurity.

Each European country that wants to participate organises a national competition, from which the top 10 are selected to join the international competition, which will now take place.

“The lack of human resources in the area of cybersecurity is a problem that affects not only Portugal but the whole world. A way to identify and attract young talent to this area is through cybersecurity competitions, known as Capture the Flag (CTF), such as the ECSC that put participants in different scenarios and vulnerabilities that they may face in their professional life. Since 2019, the National Cybersecurity Center, Técnico, the University of Porto and the Portuguese Association for the Promotion of Information Security (AP2SI) have been organising the CyberSecurity Challenge PT, which aims to select the 10 Portuguese representatives in the European competition. This year, the Técnico students André Mendes, Bruno Mendes, João Borges, João Rocha, Nuno Alves, Pedro Chaparro and Rafael Rodrigues, were part of the national team”.