About ECSC

The European Cybersecurity Challenge (ECSC) has developed into an European success story over the past eight years. In cooperation with 35 European nations and the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity ENISA, this competition model could be anchored as a constant in Europe's Cybersecurity strategy.

The objectives of the ECSC related to cyber security are:

In 2023, more than 40,000 young talents from across Europe and the rest of the world took part in national cybersecurity challenges run by local organizations to qualify for the ECSC European Championship finals in Hamar, Norway, or to attend the digital Open European Challenge. As a European beacon competition, the ECSC should also support the respective national organizational units in promoting and operating their national competitions.

To inspire even more people for this topic and to strengthen the objectives of the ECSC in the long term, the openECSC initiative was designed and is planned for 2024 alongside the ECSC.

Only young talent under the age of twenty-five (25) and ten (10) contenders from each nation per year are eligible to compete in the European Cybersecurity Challenge (ECSC). In order to raise awareness of cybersecurity and advance the ECSC's long-term objectives, openECSC, a worldwide cybersecurity competition that is open to everyone, debutted in 2022 alongside the ECSC.

Everyone (including non-EU citizens), regardless of whether they are security enthusiasts or experts, are free to showcase their abilities at this event and engage the biggest cybersecurity community in the world in order to support even more talents.