The Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy has announced that its junior team finished in 2nd place at the CyberCenturion Grand Finals held in Manchester last week. The senior team finished in a very respectable 7th place up against the very best teams across the UK and the Overseas Territories.

A statement from the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy follows below:

Both teams qualified after competing in three online qualifying rounds against over 200 other teams with the top 15 making it through to the finals.

The Finals, held in Manchester and organised by STEM Learning UK saw both teams score as many points as possible within four hours. The task was to secure three Linux operating systems which were littered with vulnerabilities and back doors along with substantial misconfigurations all of which need to be addressed and fixed. 

Students have been attending weekly Cyber school lessons at The Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy which is led by former student and past winner of the CyberCenturion competition, Mr Jared Cruz. Lessons are planned and delivered to be as hands on as possible and prepares them for not only the competition but for future careers in this field too.

The travel and accommodation costs were covered entirely by donations from many companies within the local community such as Digital Corner, EY and Hills Property. Without these, the teams would not have been able to attend.

Stewart Harrison - Director of the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy ‘I am immense proud of all the teams and their achievements. Throughout the year, they have worked hard and shown commitment to learning and preparing for this. 

Mr Cruz has done an amazing job and these results are a testament to his dedication, knowledge and hard work throughout the year.

None of this would have been possible without our sponsors and more importantly, the parents who supported the Academy and the students themselves in so many ways.

I look forward to what the future holds for our students, especially working and learning such an exciting and relevant subject such as Cybersecurity.’

Jared Cruz, Head of School (Cybersecurity) ‘After one of the most challenging years in the competition, the students of the Gibraltar Digital Skills Academy have shown an incredible feat of resilience and commitment. I am so glad that their efforts have been rewarded with this prestigious opportunity. I am proud of every single one of them and can't thank the parents enough for their support. An incredible highlight has been the juniors which placed 2nd in the whole competition in the junior category (all in their first year of classes!). It has been a privilege to teach them this year and look forward to all of their future successes

They have truly made Gibraltar proud’