On October 12–16, 2026, ethical hackers from across Europe will get together in Bochum, Germany, to compete in the European Cyber Security Challenge (ECSC). Team Austria, which is coached by Marco Squarcina (Assistant Professor at TU Wien Informatics), has just finished an intense round of preparation for the ECSC, mastering a demanding attack-and-defense challenge, in the finals of the Austria Cybersecurity Challenge.

The ECSC is a competition where national teams of young talents ages 14-24 compete in CTF cybersecurity challenges. The competition runs for several days and is supported by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) and the European Commission. Since its conception, the ECSC has attracted the interest of a growing number of European countries and international stakeholders – so much so that it has been termed ‘the Eurovision‘ of cybersecurity. Each year, it is organized and hosted by a different European country to crown the European cybersecurity champion.

Stay tuned for updates on the ECSC, and good luck to Team Austria!

Team Austria

Juniors

• Christopher Haindl
• Hannah Fluch
• Matthias Pleschinger
• Raphael Dorrer
• Simon Rechberger

Seniors

• Christoph Tantscher
• Fabian Gurtner
• Georg Felber (Team Captain)
• Jannik Schager
• Johannes Berndorfer

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