Success at the International Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge 2023

The two teams that won our own Cyber Challenge in February made it all the way to the semifinals at the International Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge which took place in Geneva in mid-April.

"We are very pleased and proud of our efforts. We saw that many other teams that participated had a more adapted background in cyber and studied at advanced level or higher, so it felt cool to still be able to measure up to them" says Rebecka Ilskog, who was part of the team Error 451 Unavailable for Legal Reasons.

Challenging to compete in cybersecurity remotely

Rebecka Ilskog and two of her team mates are studying the fourth semester of the political science programme and Ella Tegsten is studying leadership and management. She explains that the fact that they competed together as a team in the Swedish Cyber Challenge gave a certain advantage.

"At the same time, it was more difficult because the Cyber 9/12 Challenge is on an international level and thus more complex. It was also more challenging to be remote, as you could not read the room and the judges in the same way as if you had competed on site. The fact that the competition took place digitally also made contact with the other teams difficult, which is a shame considering that there were so many nationalities represented."

Complex scenarios under time pressure

The preparation for the competition has been important and a way for the teams to gain much-needed experience, as they did not know much about cybersecurity before the competition.

"Designing and presenting policy proposals and then quickly reorienting oneself when new information is presented, i.e. working with complex scenarios under time pressure, are experiences for life" says Rebecka Ilskog.

Fictional cyber disaster

The competition takes place at the intersection of geopolitics and cybersecurity, where students from around the world compete in developing policy recommendations to address a fictional cyber disaster. The competition involves both an interactive learning experience and a scenario exercise in competition with the other teams. The challenge is to respond to a realistic cyberattack and analyse the threat it poses to national, international and private sector interests.

Searching on equal terms

However, winning our own Cyber Challenge for two of the teams did not mean any direct qualification to the international competition, but all our teams applied on equal terms.

– Of course, we hope that the teams' success in the international competition will make more people want to participate in our own competition, says Carolina Dalmo, project manager at the Centre for Total Defence and Societal Security (CTSS). Our own Cyber Challenge is organized by us with the aim of increasing the understanding of cyber attacks, methods and the challenges cyber attacks pose to governments, authorities and citizens.

The Swedish Defence University's Cyber Challenge