For the past ten years, the GCSP has been the host of the Geneva Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge. Organised in partnership with the Atlantic Council, the challenge has seen hundreds of students worldwide wear the cap of cyber experts and policy makers to face all kinds of cyber incidents with global repercussions. To this day, the competition continues to evolve with the international geopolitical context, and serves as a capacity building event to train the next generation of cyber security professionals.
This year, the scenario focuses on the Arctic, exploring the security, environmental, and geopolitical implications of a cyber attack on a highly contested territory. While the first years of the competition were held in-person, the challenge is now fully virtual, allowing teams from all over the world to compete, and more importantly, to connect with one another. As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the competition, we look back to the first year of Geneva’s Cyber 9/12 and how it impacted the people who were a part of its inception.
We have had the pleasure to reconnect with the first winners of the Strategy Challenge here in Geneva, where they have come to discuss their lives and careers since they won, ten years ago. Moderated by our Deputy Executive Director and Head of Executive Education Ms Christina Orisich, the conversation covers the impact of the competition on the course of their careers, the relevancy of cyber policy making simulations and recommendations for students who will be competing in the future.