News archive
Estonia’s young cyber talents head to Europe’s biggest cyber competition, with high hopes of winning

Now that the competition is a few weeks away, the time is right to ask the organiser of the competition, Birgy Lorenz, the leader of TalTech’s CyberOlympics project, and Johannes Kadak, the team’s coach, some quick questions.
How well is the team prepared for the competition and is there anything new or different this year compared to previous years?
Johannes: ‘Compared to previous years, the current team consists of both veterans with years of experience and newcomers joining the competition for the first time. I am very happy to see that despite a two-year break due to COVID-19, the interest of Estonian youth in cyber camps, collaboration and cyber competitions is still the same.’
Birgy: ‘Recent years have not been easy, as the online platform alone is not enough, because a sense of community is created by doing things together and actually meeting and getting to know each other. This year, we have organised two camps in real life and two through the web. The last one was an international event with the best from Norway and Denmark among the participants.’
Who do you consider your old rivals or closest competitors? What is your greatest strength?
Birgy: ‘The biggest challenge will be to compete with countries where the “talent pool” is large – for example Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, the UK and Austria, where there are thousands of applicants from universities and vocational schools. The headquarters of IT companies in large countries are keen to ensure that young people get the best computers, software and training programmes for the competition.
On this occasion, however, we are very grateful to the organisers in Austria, who, in order to ensure a level playing field, provided free HackingLab training programmes for all countries. Otherwise, it’s still Estonia and other small countries, such as Cyprus, Malta, Luxembourg or Lichtenstein, who are doing their best to send their teams to the competition. As with the Olympics and other major sporting events, it is a miracle that our team has done so well that we are in the top 10 every year. After all, there are usually participants from 18 to 27 countries!’
Well, if the IT-savviness of the national team is, to put it mildly, above average, what is the IT literacy of the so-called ‘ordinary youngsters’ and what is the trend in this respect? Are there any signs of progress in the digital literacy of young people?
Johannes: ‘We feel that the “skills floor” has been raised – most young people can send emails and draft documents. The Estonian educational system provides the basic knowledge on how to use Excel, PowerPoint and to manage social media accounts.’
Birgy: ‘But how to take young people beyond these basic skills? How to make them interested in what’s inside? To get young people to ask themselves: do I understand how processes really work? Am I complacent using someone else’s creation or can I do something myself? Can I solve the problems myself, e.g. figure out how to get Wi-Fi to place X where the coverage is bad, or do I just accept that there is no Internet?’
Johannes: ‘Sometimes it’s even harder to start hacking because it’s no longer as easy to dismantle, tinker with, modify a computer or smartphone as it used to be; and it also ends the warranty of the device. People are also very lax about accepting any kind of provider rules or simpler operating system solutions that do the thinking for them. At the same time, in the case of Linux, for example, you still have to understand how things really work in order to get it under your control.’
Is there any way to follow the competition in real time and cheer our team on?
Birgy: ‘The organisers will share this information mainly on Twitter. There probably won’t be a live broadcast, as the competition will last for 2 days and may look like an ordinary IT farm with 400 participants sitting at their computers.
However, the competition website is worth checking out.’ You can find out more about the results and participation of our Estonian team on Facebook, on the Cyber Olympics channel.
Thank You very much and good luck!

Event
Internet Day
How AI Is Changing the Way We Learn
Technology has changed not only how we live, but also how young people learn. Tools like ChatGPT can solve tasks in seconds. While that brings new challenges, it also gives us a chance to rethink how we teach and what school is really for.

News
.ee domain
2024 Annual Report of the .ee Domain
The Estonian Internet Foundation (EIF) has published the 2024 .ee annual report. In the publication, we provide an overview of .ee's progress, achievements, and upcoming developments.
_large.webp)
Event
Internet Day
Internet Day 2025: Is There Still Room for Humans Online?
This year’s Internet Day theme was “Humanity on the Internet.” Why? Because AI is now a big part of our lives. It’s everywhere—and it helps us in many ways. But as machines get better at creating and sharing content, one big question comes up: is there still space for people and human-made things online?