Sapienza University of Rome wins the ninth edition of CyberChallenge.IT 2025

It ended in Turin, at the training Campus ONU ITCILO, the ninth edition of the CyberChallenge.it program which saw the victory, for the third consecutive time, of the Sapienza University of Rome followed by the University of Bari Aldo Moro and the Alma Mater Studiorium, University of Bologna.

“CyberChallenge.IT is an intense training program, completely free for participants” - specifies Alessandro Armando, Director of Cybersecurity National Lab. “Now in its ninth edition, it is, in fact, one of the Italian pillars for building advanced skills in cybersecurity. Furthermore, the program is now recognized as excellent both in Italy and internationally; the Ministry of Education and Merit includes it in the annual program for the valorization of excellence”.

“CyberChallenge.IT succeeds in its goal of bringing together hundreds of young cybersecurity talents with representatives from the academic world, institutions and companies - adds Gaspare Ferraro, National Coordinator of CyberChallenge.IT - Our wish for all participants is to be able to continue, with the same passion as these days of the event, in their educational and professional path in the world of cybersecurity”.

CyberChallenge.IT 2025 is organized by the Cybersecurity National Lab of Cini (National Interuniversity Consortium for Computer Science) and realized with the support of ACN – National Cybersecurity Agency - and with the patronage of the GPDP - Guarantor for the protection of personal data; represents one of the actions activated by the Cybersecurity National Lab to implement Measure #65 of the Implementation Plan of the National Cybersecurity Strategy 2022-2026 of the ACN.

The 2025 edition of CyberChallenge.IT saw the participation of 38 universities, the Army Training Command and Application School of Turin and the Air Force Academy of Pozzuoli. In Turin, 240 young people competed, selected from the almost one thousand who attended the course that for years has enjoyed recognition as an "Annual program for the valorization of excellence" by the Ministry of Education and Merit. The long journey began in January, which included the pre-test, the programming and admission test, the training phase, the local competition and the national competition: finally yesterday afternoon we arrived at the award ceremony for the program CyberChallenge.IT 2025.

The participants of CyberChallenge.IT, similarly to the finalists of the other training programs of the Cybersecurity National Lab, constitute the natural pool from which the best CyberDefenders will be selected and “called” to be part of TeamItaly , the national team that will represent Italy in prestigious international competitions, such as the ECSC - European Cybersecurity Challenge - next October in Warsaw.

The national competition of the 2025 edition of CyberChallenge.it saw the kids compete in a Capture The Flag (CTF) competition, of the Attack/Defense type, where they applied the skills learned in the field of cryptography, network security and hardware and software systems, defending their own infrastructures and attacking those of their adversaries, exploiting the vulnerabilities identified in the systems.