The team from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point is the winner of the 2019 “Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge” co-organised by the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and the Atlantic Council.

“It is of great importance to the GCSP to train, through this type of real case scenarios, the future policy makers” said Ambassador Christian Dussey, Former Director of the GCSP (2013-2021). “This is a critical way to prepare the next generations to the difficult tasks they will have to deal with in this ever-changing field”, he added.

The two-day event, which ran on 25 and 26 April at the GCSP in the Maison de la paix, welcomed 22 teams of four students each from Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Finalists included:

• Team Nexus (ETH Zürich/ University of St. Gallen) from Switzerland (4th place);
• Team JYUnique (University of Jyväskylä) from Finland (3rd place);
• Team Trojan (ETH Zürich/ University of Zürich and the Graduate Institute Geneva) from Switzerland (2nd place).

“For NATO, cyber defence is a top priority”, said Chelsey Slack, Deputy Head, Cyber Defense Section, Emerging Security Challenges Division, NATO. “We’re working to develop our capabilities, enhance our resilience, and build our partnerships to tackle the evolving cyber threat. This is why it is important for us to be part of this event”, she added.

Already in its fifth year, the competition invited university students to tackle a simulated cyber incident in real time. This year, the challenge’s scenario is based on a European-level cyber crisis targeting the maritime ecosystem and its consequences. Teams were required to respond to ever-changing situations and offer strategic policy recommendations, from a European point of view, to Head of States, government leaders, senior officials and representatives from the private sector. Escalating malicious cyber activities, data breaches, DDOS attacks and tensions between States have been their daily bread for the past two days.

“We come from all different academic backgrounds”, said the members of Black Knight’s team, who are all undergraduates at West Point. “We have all different mind working together”, they added.

The judges featured prominent personalities in the field of cybersecurity and included Ms Chelsey Slack, Deputy Head, Cyber Defense Section, Emerging Security Challenges Division, NATO; Mr Rami Efrati, Founder and President, Firmitas Cyber Solutions Ltd; Mr Gianni Crameri, Manager, Deloitte AG, Mr. Pete Cooper, Non-resident Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council Cyber Statecraft Initiative, Atlantic Council and Ms Lenning Pedron, President and Co-Founder, ICON.

16 universities participated this year:

1. Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia);
2. University of Jyväskylä (Finland);
3. Institut Français de Géopolitique (France);
4. Corvinus University of Budapest (Hungary);
5. National University of Public Service (Hungary);
6. Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway);
7. Swedish Defence University (Sweden);
8. Stockholm University (Sweden);
9. ETH Zürich (Switzerland);
10. University of Zürich (Switzerland);
11. Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Switzerland);
12. HSG Universität St. Gallen (Switzerland);
13. Royal Holloway, University of London (United Kingdom),
14. US Air Force Cyber College (United States);
15. US Coast Guard Academy (United States);
16. US Military Academy at West Point (United States).

“Being a competitor in Cyber 9/12 was like the little thing that gave my resume an edge, that little extra thing that stands out in that pile of resumes that HR has to go through when hiring someone” said Robin Andreasson, a cybersecurity consultant, who has been participating for 4 years in this event, twice as a competitor and twice as an observer.

Team Black Knights from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point wins for the second time in a row, following the footsteps of STUXNET from the Geneva School of Diplomacy that won in 2017.

The GCSP thanks all the sponsors that made this 5th edition of the European Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge a success and looks forward to welcoming many of you in April 2020!

Below are a list of press mentions:

• "Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge 2019", Esprit, 15 May 2019
• "Une vraie fausse attaque informatique", Bilan, 7 May 2019
• "Wenn der Hafen einer Cyberattacke ausgesetzt ist, ruft man am besten Amerikaner zu Hilfe", NZZ, 30 April 2019
• "Une attaque de ports au menu des futurs stratèges", 20 minutes, 27 April 2019
• "Cybersecurité : des étudiants américains à nouveau primés à Genève", La liberté, 26 April 2019
• "L'équipe de l'académie militaire américaine de West point remporte la cinquième édition du Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge", Monde Economique, 26 April 2019
• Radio interview Ambassador Christian Dussey, Former Director of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and Klaus Julisch, Deloitte Switzerland "Cyber 9/12 Strategy "Challenge - fictional cyber attacks and how to solve them", World Radio, 24 April 2019
• Interview Ambassador Christian Dussey and Anne-Caroline Pissis, "Le secteur maritime au coeur du Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge", AGEFI, 24 April 2019