"The shortage of ethical hackers is a serious problem in Estonia and Europe. Today, Europe is short more than 2,000 specialists with cyber defense skills, and the deficit has grown by 19 percent in a year. On one hand, every IT specialist today must constantly update their basic cybersecurity skills. On the other hand, labor demand in the information and communication technology sector continues to grow," said Martin Hanson, Marketing Manager of the CR14 cyber training range.

He noted that Estonia needs around 60-80 additional cybersecurity experts annually, and according to forecasts, the entire IT sector will need over 5,000 new people by 2027. Additionally, in 10 years, a large portion of the specialists who laid the foundation for Estonia's e-government will retire. If there is no new generation coming up, we face a serious security threat, Hanson emphasized.

Competition chief organizer Mario Mäeots explained that this is precisely why the private and public sectors have joined forces and organized cyber competitions for six years now—to motivate young people to choose the side of good and to develop interest and skills in stopping cybercriminals. Young people aged 14-25 from general education schools, vocational schools, colleges, and universities gathered at the TV3 studio to put their knowledge to the test before television viewers and a jury.

"Developing cyber skills doesn't just mean acquiring technical knowledge, but also developing critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration skills," explained TalTech cyber education expert Birgy Lorenz. Such practical experiences help young people make more informed career choices. Cyber competitions are like learning accelerators, where knowledge is applied in real-life situations and learning happens through both success and mistakes.

Changes and winners

This year was different for competitors. While previously teams competed in the final, now each young person competed individually. The title "Estonia's Best Ethical Hacker" went to senior age group winner Lyra Rebane. Second place was achieved by Markus Veerbaum and third place by Rico-Andreas Lepp.

The junior age group winner was Albert Reinman, second place went to Andreas Kase, and third to Markus Erkmann. The top three in the junior age group received the opportunity to enter TalTech's IT Faculty under special conditions.

The 2025 Cyber School titles were awarded to Tartu Tamme Basic School, Tartu Tamme Gymnasium, VOCO, and TalTech, whose students achieved the best results in cyber competitions.

Viewers' participation

As another innovation, all television viewers could participate for the first time this year. During the broadcast, a QR code was displayed on screen, through which it was possible to solve cyber tasks. These were simpler than the competitors' tasks but gave a sense of what cybersecurity specialists deal with daily.

The television viewers' tasks included, for example, using cryptography, which allowed text to be converted into cipher without requiring special knowledge. They could also solve puzzles related to analyzing public information, where simple googling was sufficient, but one couldn't forget the need to critically evaluate the information found and verify its accuracy. Tasks could be solved on both smartphones and laptops.

The competition took place at the CR14 Foundation's cyber training range, where NATO cyber experts normally train and the world's largest cyber exercises are held. The competition was conducted on November 9 at 10:00 AM at the TV3 studio in Tallinn with a live broadcast.