2,000 high school and university students will develop their cybersecurity skills at UNbreakable Romania 2025

UNbreakable Romania, the largest cybersecurity education program for high school and college students, announces the opening of registrations for its eighth edition. The program helps young people develop cybersecurity skills and build a solid career in the field.

At UNbreakable Romania, participants can have direct access to companies looking for talent for jobs or internships and can benefit from opportunities to collaborate with specialists. The best will also win prizes worth over 8,000 euros.

In 2024, the global cybersecurity workforce shortage reached a record level, with 4.7 million experts needed, according to the CyberSecurity Workforce study conducted by (ISC)². In this context, the eighth edition of UNbreakable Romania continues to train new generations of talent, thus ensuring a solid foundation of future cybersecurity professionals. Thus, high school students and students passionate about cybersecurity are invited to register, starting from January 29, for the 2025 edition of UNbreakable Romania.

The program is also being held this year on the CyberEDU technical educational platform, developed by Bit Sentinel and supported by Orange, the organizers of UNbreakable Romania, where there are numerous resources for training professionals in the field of cybersecurity. Last year, UNbreakable set a new participation record, with over 1,400 young people enrolled in the program. Of these, 839 actively participated in the individual competition, 93% being under 25 years old, and approximately 80% expressing interest in internship opportunities and jobs in the field of cybersecurity.

By 2025, the UNbreakable program aims to attract nearly 2,000 participants and provide them with opportunities to connect with the Romanian business environment active in the cybersecurity field, thus facilitating their integration into the labor market. The program will create concrete opportunities for companies to discover emerging talents and support the development of a future workforce needed in the field, ready to meet the needs of employers. A first step in this direction is the organization of a series of local training competitions, such as Capture the Flag (CTF), in the country’s major cities, held until the first official competition in the program. These events, which will take place for the first time, will bring the UNbreakable experience closer to participants, facilitate connections with local partners and offer young people the chance to explore the practical aspects of cybersecurity.

“The UNbreakable Romania program has grown exponentially from year to year, both in terms of the number of participants and by diversifying the activities and opportunities offered to students. Thus, we will continue to focus on supporting young people across the country to develop and build successful careers in cybersecurity. By creating new activities and actively involving local communities, we want to make cybersecurity study and practice more accessible and form a solid talent base. We are confident that, in the coming years, these young people will grow from valuable juniors to experts, ready to contribute to the development of an elite cyber industry in Romania”, declared Andrei Avădănei, CEO of Bit Sentinel.

In parallel, young participants can prepare themselves in the online bootcamp. They will have access to theoretical and practical resources, as well as cybersecurity experts and former participants who will hold webinars on relevant topics, offering them support to improve their skills or even career advice. Subsequently, two online competitions will take place: the individual competition, between March 28 and 30, and the team competition, between April 11 and 13. For the third consecutive year, the top 3 male and female winners of the individual competition will automatically qualify for the final of the Romanian Cyber ​​Security Challenge – RoCSC 2025. The finalists of RoCSC 2025 will benefit from national recognition and will be able to be part of the team that will represent Romania in the European Cyber ​​Security Championship. In addition, the best 15 teams from the online team competition will be selected for the final stage, which will take place physically in Bucharest, between May 9 and 11.

“The UNbreakable project aims to reduce the gap between market requirements and the number of available specialists in the field of cybersecurity. We set out to create real opportunities for young talents from all over the country, preparing them to become leaders and innovators in the field. Their major interest, proven by the thousands of registrations in previous editions, shows that young people understand the opportunity to prepare themselves in a field of the future for them. The younger generation is much more aware of cyber risks due to their daily interaction with technology. This makes cybersecurity a topic of personal interest, but also an attractive professional option for them”, said Cristian Pațachia-Sultănoiu, Development & Innovation Manager, Orange Romania.

The winners will receive prizes worth over 8,000 euros, provided by Bit Sentinel and Orange Romania. In a context where cyber attacks are becoming increasingly frequent and sophisticated, and the skills shortage in the field significantly affects the security of organizations, the UNbreakable Romania 2025 program comes as an essential and welcome solution for the development of the new generation of cybersecurity specialists. According to the CyberSecurity Workforce study conducted by (ISC)², 59% of professionals believe that the lack of skills affects their ability to protect their organizations, and 58% believe that this deficit exposes organizations to major risks. In this context, UNbreakable aims to reduce this gap between demand and supply by attracting and training young talents from across the country. UNbreakable Romania is a national program organized for high school and university students in the country who are preparing for a career in cybersecurity or who want to improve their knowledge in the field. The pilot edition took place in 2020 and since then, UNbreakable has taken the form of an annual program, attended by over 5,000 young people in total from dozens of universities and hundreds of high schools in Romania.