Success for ETH students at Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge
Team nETHics, composed of ETH students and trained by the student organisation ETH Cyber Group, placed second at this year's Geneva Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. Congratulations!
At the Geneva Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge, teams of students from around the world tackle a simulated cyber incident in real time. In its ninth edition, which took place virtually from 13 to 14 April 2023, all of the four ETH teams made it into the second round of the competition. The ETH team nETHics won second place among 28 teams (14 teams into the second round) from several different countries.
Critical infrastructures, increased interconnectedness, and the role of the private technology sector were at the centre of the new scenario. Creativity and teamwork were crucial attributes during the two-day challenge as the teams were presented with a plethora of information, some more certain and relevant than others. The teams had to rapidly sift through and analyse the information to make both strategic and innovative decisions.
The team nETHics, comprised of Data Science Master's student Doriela Grabocka, Cyber Security Master's students Vladyslav Zubkov and Jonas Gloning, and Pablo Wey, research assistant in the Intellectual Property Group of ETH and Law Master's student at UZH, was supported by ETH Cyber Group – Student Initiative.
The Cyber Group aims to bring the topic of cyber security closer to students from all study programmes, and create a network between students, academia, industry and the public sector. Its primary goal is to support groups participating in cyber crisis simulation competitions, such as the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge, by providing them with appropriate training, funding and overall support during the competition. Additionally, the Cyber Group organises a variety of “Open Port” events throughout the year, during which renowned cyber security experts come to ETH to share the current state of their field with students.
About the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge
The Geneva Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge is an annual competition that falls at the intersection of geopolitics and cybersecurity. Students from all over the world gather to compete and create policy recommendations for a fictional cyber disaster. The challenge serves as a combination of a competitive scenario exercise and an interactive learning experience, requiring teams to respond to a realistic, evolving cyberattack and evaluate the risk it poses to national, international, and private sector concerns.
The scenario of the 2023 edition
This year, the teams were invited to brief the fictional version of the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) on an evolving cyber crisis. The scenario presented took place in April and May of 2024, which would seriously affect the telecom infrastructure and services in the Member States of the European Union. The crisis involved several parties, including Tango Inc, a company that has developed a social media application and mini-swarm drones that could potentially be used for spying; Titan Communications, the largest telecommunication service provider in Europe and MENA-region, which also provides services to the EU and governments of member states; and a fictional ENISA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, which is responsible for developing and implementing cybersecurity policy and for EU Cyber Defense.
The scenario presented a complex and evolving situation that required a thorough analysis and strategic response from cyber policy experts.