Team STUXNET from GSD (consisting of – from left to right – : Donis Sadushaj, Hussein Abul Enein, Maria Gurova and Hassan Abul Enein) and advised by Ambassador Dr. Sameh Aboul-Enein, is the winner of the 2017 “Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge”, co-hosted by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Atlantic Council. Team STUXNET competed with 24 other international teams from Europe, Asia and the United States.
Team STUXNET was crowned the winner of the 2017 “Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge” after succeeding in tackling and handling an evolving cyber event. The team successfully made it to the finals, surpassing internationally renowned Universities which included Royal Holloway University of London, Oxford University, the United States Military Academy, The United States Air Force University, Swedish Defence University, National Defence University of Warsaw, Yenching Academy of Peking University, Tallinn University of Technology, Science Po, Military University of Technology, University of Lausanne and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, being the only Swiss based institute making it to the finals for a second consecutive year. In addition to winning the competition, team STUXNET also took home the award for ‘’best teamwork.’’
View a video interview with one of the team members, Hussein Aboul Enein right after the final presentation, here.
Other finalists included: Team “Finland” from Jyväskylä University in Finland (4th Place); “Crisis Management Group (CCMG)” from Swedish Defense University in Sweden (3rd Place); and Team “Keep Calm and Cyber On” from Air University in the United States (2nd Place).
This years edition included a number of key note speakers and judges such as Ambassador Sorin Ducaru, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General and Head of the Emerging Security Challenges Division, Rami Efrati, President and founder of Firmitas Cyber Solutions and former Senior Head Of Israel’s civilian National Cyber Bureau under the premiership of the Prime-Minister of Israel,Jan Neutze Director of Cybersecurity Policy at Microsoft, Luigi Rebuffi, Secretary General of the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO), Beau Woods, Deputy Director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Atlantic Council, Ambassador Christian Dussey, Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), Apo Cederberg, Senior Programme Advisor in the Emerging Security Challenges Programme at the GCSP and European Director of the Cyber 9/12 competition.
The Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge is a must attend event, that witnesses students working in teams of four to tackle a major cyberattack, respond to evolving situations, and develop policy recommendations. Co-Hosted by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Atlantic Council, the 9/12 Cyber Student Challenge is a one-of-a-kind competition designed to provide students across academic disciplines with a deeper understanding of the policy challenges associated with cyber crisis and conflict mitigation.
For more information about the challenge, please click here.
To see the list of all participating teams in the 2017 challenge, please click here.LIVESTREAM RECORD: The recorded final session could be found here.
Please see here the intelligence briefs they were presented and the policy responses submitted throughout the competition by Team STUXNET:
