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European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC)

The European Cyber Security Challenge is an annual competition that brings together young talents from almost 30 different (mostly) European countries. This is a unique chance to connect yourself with like-minded security enthusiasts across the whole of Europa and participate in a big onsite event.
Switzerland was among the first three countries when ECSC was still called the Alpen Cup. Since then, ECSC has grown enormously, and in 2022 there were 28 competing countries.

ECSC 2023 is in Hamar, Norway from October 24 to 27, 2023.

A few facts about ECSC:

  • Each year a different country hosts the challenge. In 2023, it's in Norway.
  • SHC covers the travel costs (from Zurich HB) and expenses.
  • The competition usually includes Jeopardy challenges from the usual categories: web security, mobile security, crypto, reverse engineering, forensics, and some pwn.
  • In Austria, we had one day of Attack/Defense, and a second day with Jeopardy CTF.
  • Apart from the competition, we usually have a great time with everyone on various social activities (check out the gallery)

International Cybersecurity Challenge (ICC)

The International Cybersecurity Challenge is a global competition that happened in Athens for the first time in Summer 2022. Teams from over 64 countries participate in region-based groups, including Canada, the US, Latin America, Brasil, South East Asia, Southern Africa, Northern Africa, Oceania, and Europe. ICC aims to raise IT security awareness, support young talents, and extend the success of ECSC to an international level. Team Europe won sensationally in 2022.

ICC works as follows:

  • Two people* from the Swiss ECSC team can compete for a spot in Team Europe.
  • Categories include web application, system exploitation, cryptography, reverse engineering, hardware challenges, and attack/defence.
  • ENISA expects ICC to become one of the key incubators of cybersecurity entrepreneurship and future top security experts globally.
  • The selection process and training for Team Europe include multiple events across Europe.
*To promote diversity, we can nominate at most one male participant.