Success for UCL in the Atlantic Council’s Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge

The Cyber 9/12 UK Strategy Challenge, which was held at the iconic BT Tower in London on 17-18 February, is a national cybersecurity competition designed to identify and equip the next generation of policy leaders with the skills and expertise needed to meet future cybersecurity challenges. The team from UCL, named the Unbreakable Cyber League, included Natalia Maj, Jay Neuner, Jiehui Song and Malla Tedroff, with Dr Irina Brass, Lecturer in Regulation, Innovation and Public Policy at UCL STEaPP, as their coach.

During the competition the team took on the role of senior advisors to government and industry and were tasked with responding to an escalating cyber-attack. This year’s scenario focused on an evolving series of events affecting UK industry and infrastructure, including oil and telecommunications.

After assessing the technical and strategic implications of these events, the Unbreakable Cyber League used their diverse expertise to develop a series of policy recommendations. The team presented these recommendations to a judging panel of senior cyber experts, progressing through to the semi-finals. Following a scenario update, Natalia, Jay, Jiehui and Malla worked through the night to develop a set of new policy recommendations and present these to the panel of expert judges the following day.

Jiehui Song said: “The Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge gave us a peek into how policy advisors have to familiarise themselves with a massive amount of information, pick out the most important points and propose the next course of action within a short span of time.”

Dr Irina Brass said: “Congratulations to the Unbreakable Cyber League for doing so well in the Cyber 9/12 competition! This is the third consecutive year that our MPAs have represented UCL in the challenge and every year it is an absolute joy to work with such hardworking, competent and enthusiastic teams.

“Cyber 9/12 is truly exciting, giving our MPA candidates a unique opportunity to apply so many of the skills they develop during the programme: from assessing complex evidence, to writing decision documents to government officials, to proposing credible cybersecurity policy solutions.”

For more information on the MPA in Digital Technologies and Policy, visit the STEaPP website.