Team Romania team won one gold, one silver and two bronze medals at this year's International Cybersecurity Olympiad (ICO), the National Directorate for Cyber Security (DNSC) reported on Thursday.
At the first participation in this competition, Romania was represented by a group of four students: Razvan Mihai Iacob - gold medal; Vladimir Albu - silver medal; Stefan Mihai Filimon - bronze medal; Alexandru Gabriel Stan - bronze medal.
"The results confirm the high level of training of young Romanians in the field of cyber security and strengthen Romania's position among the states with a tradition in training future specialists in this strategic sector (...) The students who represented Romania at ICO 2026 were selected following their performances at the Cybersecurity Olympiad (CSO) 2026, the national competition of high school students passionate about cybersecurity, organised by the Ministry of Education and Research in cooperation with institutional partners. The CSO is one of the mechanisms for identifying and training young talents in this area and for training the national team that participates in international competitions," according to DNSC.
Participation in the International Cyber Security Olympiad (ICO) was included for the first time this year in the calendar of the Ministry of Education and Research as a natural continuation of CSO, being an individual competition in which each participating student has the chance to be a medallist, with the ministry providing the necessary resources for participation.
In its second edition in 2026, ICO aims to annually bring together high school students from dozens of countries, offering them the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and technical skills in tests covering areas such as: web application security, cryptography, digital forensics, reverse engineering, vulnerability exploitation and other challenges specific to Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions.
Romania's participation in ICO 2026 was made possible thanks to the National Cyberint Center (CNC) with the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI), Orange Romania, CyberEDU, Bit Sentinel, the Polytechnic University of Bucharest (UPB), the University of Bucharest (UniBuc), ECDL Romania and the Romanian Association for Security Technology (ARTS).
