Success of Talent4Cyber 2025: nearly 500 participants in the Joint Cyber Command hackathon

•  It has established itself as the major university meeting in cybersecurity

The second edition of Talent4Cyber, the Attack & Defence hackathon organised by the Joint Cyber Command (MCCE), has been very well received. Nearly 500 students from 42 universities across Spain gathered virtually in November for a meeting that promised high-level challenges, strategy and plenty of adrenaline.

A total of 20 challenges in areas such as cryptography, forensic analysis, networks and reverse engineering, among others, culminated in a realistic simulation of real-time digital combat, with an attack and defence drone scenario as the grand finale. It was an intense experience that challenged participants to demonstrate not only their technical knowledge, but also their capacity to react and work as a team.

The commander of the Joint Cyber Command (MCCE), Vice Admiral Javier Roca Rivero, was responsible for opening the 2025 edition. In his speech, he highlighted the importance of strengthening collaboration between universities and cybersecurity, and invited participants to take advantage of these two days to compete, learn and test their skills in cyberspace, because, above and beyond technological capabilities, people and their values ​​are always present.

Over the course of two days, streamers Marta Barrio and Miguel Ángel Díaz broadcasted live the progress of the challenges and missions on YouTube, with interviews with cybersecurity experts and the winners of the first edition of Talent4Cyber.

The ICAI Cyber Team, made up of four students from Comillas Pontifical University (ICAI), won the final tests with the best score, proclaiming themselves the overall winners of Talent4Cyber 2025. The TrustTheBox team from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena was proclaimed runner-up.

The winners will be honoured on 26 November at the 7th ESPDEF-CERT Cyber Defence Conference, held in Madrid. At the awards ceremony, one of the MCCE technicians will reveal how some of the most complex challenges of the exercise were solved.

In addition, the ICAI Cyber Team will participate in the prestigious Locked Shields 2026 as part of the MCCE team. Locked Shields is a global cyber defence event held annually that simulates a large-scale cyber battle between two teams.

In collaboration with the University of Granada and the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, TrustLab, Talent4Cyber not only seeks to test participants, but also to bring them closer to the professional environment of cybersecurity and defence. The competition takes place in a collaborative setting, offering the opportunity to interact with experts, teachers and institutional representatives.