After months of preparations and hard work, Team Austria has scored a rank in the top 10 at the European Cybersecurity Challenge 2025!

From October 6-9, the ECSC, which is supported by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA), was hosted in Warsaw, Poland. At the ECSC2025, organized by NASK, CERT.pl, and the Polish Ministry of Digital Affairs, 34 national and 5 guest teams competed against each other over the span of several days, with 1 Team participating as observer.

Team Austria had a slow start on the first day, when some nations managed to solve several challenges early on with support from AI tools. However, the team made a strong comeback later in the day, temporarily taking 3rd place and finishing the day in 9th place. The Attack/Defense competition on day 2 started with some infrastructure problems that affected the team’s defensive capabilities. However, the team quickly adapted and managed to recover, being able to focus on offensive tasks. The team performed well, especially in the second half of the day, ultimately securing 8th place and obtaining a “first blood” on one service (being the first team to exploit a vulnerability).

After two intense days of Jeopardy and Attack/Defense challenges, Team Italy won the ECSC 2025, with Denmark and Germany rounding out the top three. Five additional guest countries took part in the event, with Team USA winning the guest category, followed by Canada and Australia. Team Austria secured 9th place; the battle for the positions between 5th and 10th place was incredibly close, with only 300 points separating these teams. A single challenge could have made a significant difference in the final standings, representing the high level of competition between these teams.

“ECSC is now seen by the community as the premier European cybersecurity competition for young talents. Top teams source their players from competitive CTF teams that regularly participate in international competitions. The level of ECSC has increased significantly over the years, and it is now common to see players with experience in top-tier CTFs such as DEF CON CTF.”, says Marco Squarcina, Coach of Team Austria.

The European Cybersecurity Challenge provides an excellent opportunity for young cybersecurity talents to showcase their skills and network with peers from across Europe. Looking ahead, it’s clear that AI tools will play an increasingly important role in cybersecurity competitions, and the organization is already considering how to adapt the format to ensure a fair and challenging competition for all participants.

“It was great to see the friendly competition between all nations, exemplified in the fair play and excited discussion of solutions after each day had ended. This attitude, which has been fostered over the 11 years that ECSC has been running, has made my job exceptionally easy. No foul play to be adjudicated means everybody can focus on what they love the most: playing competitively and bonding over shared challenge struggles.”, reflected Manuel Reinsperger, Coach of Team Austria and Jury at the ECSC2025.

Congratulations to Team Austria on this terrific result! As always, we’re deeply grateful to everyone who has supported the event—both behind the scenes and on the front lines—your contributions make it all possible.

Want to know more about the ECSC2025? You can find the final scoreboard, picture galleries, and video recordings of the challenges on the official website of the competition.