Student Hackers Take On Ethical Battle At Cybersecurity Challenge

More than 100 young hackers have gathered on the Gold Coast, but not to steal data, break systems or exploit the public.

Instead, they are competing in the 2026 International Cybersecurity Challenge, a global contest described as the “World Cup of Cybersecurity”, where student teams from Asia, Europe, Africa, North and South America, and Australia test their skills in ethical hacking.

For Team Oceania competitor and software developer Rohan van Klinken, the phrase can sound contradictory to outsiders.

“The term used in the industry is ethical hacking, which to a lot a of people sounds like an oxymoron,” he said.

But the work being tested at the competition has serious real-world implications. As cyber threats become faster, more sophisticated and increasingly difficult to detect, ethical hackers are being trained to think like attackers so they can help businesses and governments defend themselves.

“It’s a completely different mental state, completely locked-in on the problem in front of you, and sometimes you can spend four hours on the same challenge,” Mr van Klinken said.

One of the key events, known as the “attack and defence” challenge, gives each team the same set of programs containing intentional bugs. Competitors must identify and repair those weaknesses while also attempting to exploit them against rival teams.

Team Oceania’s Avery Armstrong said understanding the mindset of cybercriminals was essential to stopping them.

“If you’re working on criminal psychology, you need to know how a criminal thinks so you can help police catch criminals,” she said.

“It’s the same for cybersecurity, you need to know how a hacker thinks and how a hacker works.”

The competition also mirrors the growing field of “Red Teaming”, where companies pay cybersecurity specialists to test their systems by trying to hack them before malicious actors do.

“There definitely are people hacking maliciously but companies want to pay people to try and hack them first,” Team Oceania’s Jayden Young said.

“If I can find a weakness in a company and tell them about it and they can fix it, that’s a lot better than some bad guy coming in and breaking it.”

The need for those skills is growing rapidly. In 2024 and 2025, Australia recorded 84,000 cybercrimes, costing an estimated $2.1 billion.

Australia’s Cyber Security Coordinator, Lieutenant General Michelle McGuinness, told the event the scale of the challenge required cooperation across borders and sectors.

“The threats we face today are persistent, fast-moving and borderless,” she said.

“No one sector, no one government, no one nation, can meet them all alone.”

University of Queensland Executive Dean of IT Professor Liesl Folk said cybersecurity had become an “ethical battle”, with online threats causing financial harm, emotional damage and personal harassment.

“It really is an everyday battle to keep ordinary members of our community, our grandmas, our grandpas, our mums and dads, our little brothers and sisters, safe from people that are trying to do them harm,” she said.

“They’re so corrosive to the fabric of our societies around the world.”

Artificial intelligence is also changing the landscape. While some experts warn AI could supercharge cyberattacks, Director of UQ’s Cyber Research Centre Professor Ryan Ko said it could also be used creatively by defenders.

He said Team Oceania used AI three years ago to “mirror” another team’s attack, forcing competitors to suddenly defend against their own tactics.

“There was 30 minutes of silence from the other teams because they had to defend their own attacks,” Professor Ko said.

“You can see the leading edge of some of the creative thinking of the cyber operators.”

Despite the serious stakes, many competitors are drawn to cybersecurity by the challenge and thrill of discovery.

“Every now and then I’ll see something where I’m like, ‘Oh my god I’ve never seen this before,’” Ms Armstrong said.

“It’s an adrenaline rush.”

Team Europe claimed its fifth consecutive win at the 2026 International Cybersecurity Challenge, with the USA finishing second and Oceania placing third.

As cybercrime continues to grow, the competition highlights the urgent demand for skilled defenders who can identify weaknesses before criminals exploit them.

For readers looking to protect themselves, strengthen their career prospects or enter one of the fastest-growing fields in technology, now is the time to build practical cybersecurity knowledge. Hack Academy’s online training programme offers a pathway to develop the skills needed to understand cyber threats, think like an ethical hacker and help defend against the next generation of attacks.

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