As the cyber threat grows, the Danish cyber national team is competing this week at the European Cybersecurity Championship.

The cyber national team consists of 10 carefully selected hacker talents. (Photo: © Michael Tarp, DR)

By Laurits Buck Madsen ([email protected]) 9 minutes ago

Europe's greatest hacker talents are meeting and competing against each other in breaking into systems and finding hidden vulnerabilities as the European Cybersecurity Championship starts today.

It may resemble a big LAN party or esports event when over 400 young people with extraordinary skills in front of a computer meet in a sports hall in Bochum, western Germany.

But there is something far greater at stake: the nation's security.

Denmark is in fact under attack. Not with gunpowder and bullets, but every day unauthorised hackers try to penetrate digital security defences.

In late September, the Danish Agency for Societal Safety raised the threat level for destructive cyberattacks to high. And a week ago, almost 8.8 million deceased and living Danes' personal data was extracted from the CPR register by still unknown perpetrators.

Hybrid warfare and the growing threat landscape have made the development of cyber talents a political priority in Denmark.

“It is part of the modern defence of Denmark, so we need to train many more people in cyber security,” says Lisbeth Bech-Nielsen, Minister for Civil Security and Emergency Management (SF).

Need for many more

And that is precisely the idea behind the Danish cyber national team, which consists of ten carefully selected talents aged between 15 and 25.

“The whole idea of the cyber national team is to awaken young people's interest in cyber security and show them that it is more important and relevant than ever before,” says national coach Jens Myrup Pedersen, who is professor of cyber security at Aarhus University.

Among the talents who will represent Denmark on the digital battlefield is national team captain Mikkel Broni Simonsen, who has been part of the team since 2022, when Denmark won the tournament for the first time ever.

“It is cool to represent Denmark at the European Championship, and it is cool to solve problems. Cyber security is an important field to solve problems in.”

18-year-old Sebastian Bach, in contrast to the seasoned national team captain, is on the cyber national team for the first time.

“My primary motivation is that you can help protect someone who would otherwise have been exploited.”

Hear how cyber national team player Sebastian Bach's interest in cyber security arose:

The growing cyber threat means that in the future there will be a need for many more people like Sebastian Bach and Mikkel Broni Simonsen.

“The demand for these skills is enormous. Almost endless,” says Mark Fiedel, head of cyber at the Danish Defence Intelligence Service, who himself helped start the cyber national team and closely follows the talents' development.

“There is a massive need across all authorities, agencies, the Armed Forces, critical infrastructure, as well as quite ordinary companies.”

The FE cyber chief is supported by Lisbeth Bech-Nielsen.

“There is great interest and competition from both the private and public sectors for these young people,” she says.

The Minister for Civil Security and Emergency Management sees great societal value in the cyber national team:

Moral hacker compass

As a hacker, one can easily find oneself moving in legal and ethical grey zones. That is why the moral compass is important for the Danish cyber national team players.

“There are clearly many ethical considerations. The skills you have can be dangerous, but also enormously useful. The better we can use them, the better our society can ultimately look,” says Sebastian Bach, before his national team captain embarks on a comparison.

“I see it a bit like archery or martial arts. You learn some skills that could be used with malicious intent, but you don't do that,” says Mikkel Broni Simonsen.

In 2027, the European Cybersecurity Championship will come to Denmark, when Aarhus will host the tournament.

The hope is that next year they will defend the title on home ground. That first requires going all the way in Bochum, and that is certainly also the goal if you ask the cyber national team's captain.

“The ambition is clearly to repeat the success from 2022 and take the gold home to Denmark,” says Mikkel Broni Simonsen with a confident smile.

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