This year’s competition followed a fictional scenario of major cyber incident at the Juan Santamaría International Airport. Through competition, 14 teams of college and university students from 11 countries developed their skills in cyber crisis management, response planning, policy analysis, communication and networking. Teams of 3-4 students learnt how to respond to a scenario of examining a cyber crisis with far-reaching impact on national security, public policy or diplomacy.

Teams presented their recommendations to a panel of senior experts from government, cybersecurity industry and civil society for performance evaluation, with Mexico’s team “ZeroDay Mayday” emerging as a winner of Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. Second and third places were awarded to teams from Uruguay and Peru, respectively.

Established in 2012, the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge is the world’s only cyber policy and strategy competition. Since its establishment, over 6.000 students have been trained through the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. The competition took place in Latin America for the second time.

LAC4 and EU CyberNet co-sponsored and co-organised the event with Atlantic Council and its Cyber Statecraft Initiative, Organization of American States, Universidad Fidélitas, US Department of State Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy, MITRE and CyberSec Cluster.

This year’s attendance surpassed last year’s record of eight countries in attendance of Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay participating.

• Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge website
• Photos