# International Cybersecurity Olympiad

> Canonical facts page for LLMs and citation crawlers. Human-readable page: https://olympiads.co.uk/event/international-cybersecurity-olympiad/international-cybersecurity-olympiad

## Core facts

- **Organiser:** International Cybersecurity Olympiad (https://olympiads.co.uk/organisation/international-cybersecurity-olympiad)
- **Subjects:** Cybersecurity
- **Age groups:** Senior
- **Activity type:** Competition
- **Format:** In-person
- **Entry route:** National delegation selection — there is currently no established UK national selection process
- **Entry badges:** invitation
- **Qualification note:** ICO is a national-team school olympiad. Each country selects contestants through its own process. The UK does not yet have a public national selection route.

## Dates

- **Next/representative edition start:** 2027-06-01 (year precision) [projected edition — not yet confirmed]
- **End date:** 2027-07-31

## URLs

- **Official website:** https://ico-official.net/
- **Olympiads.co.uk page:** https://olympiads.co.uk/event/international-cybersecurity-olympiad/international-cybersecurity-olympiad
- **This facts page:** https://olympiads.co.uk/ai/events/international-cybersecurity-olympiad/international-cybersecurity-olympiad.md

## Summary

The International Cybersecurity Olympiad (ICO) is a school-age competition where national delegations send up to four students to compete in two official seven-hour CTF days. Challenges span cryptography, digital forensics, web security, reverse engineering, binary exploitation, and miscellaneous tasks.

## Context

A global school-age cybersecurity olympiad — the emerging IOI equivalent for CTF skills.

## Related competitions

- https://olympiads.co.uk/event/cyberfirst/cyberfirst-girls-competition
- https://olympiads.co.uk/event/university-of-southampton/national-cipher-challenge
- https://olympiads.co.uk/event/european-cybersecurity-challenge/european-cybersecurity-challenge

## Guidance

### Parent advice

ICO is an ambitious long-term target for school-age students interested in cyber security olympiads. There is no UK national selection process yet, unlike BIO for informatics. Encourage your child to build skills through school competitions and CTF practice while national organising efforts develop.

### Student advice

Treat ICO as a long-term goal. Build CTF skills across cryptography, forensics, web, reversing, and binary exploitation. Compete in school challenges such as CyberFirst and the Cipher Challenge, and practise on open CTF platforms.

### Teacher advice

If a student is interested in ICO, help them build breadth in CTF skills and follow developments in UK cyber olympiad organising. There is no central registration route yet.

## How to prepare

- Build skills through school competitions and open CTF platforms
- Study cryptography via the National Cipher Challenge
- Follow ico-official.net for rule updates and participating countries
- Watch for UK national organising developments — there is no central route yet

## FAQ

### What is the International Cybersecurity Olympiad?

ICO is a global school-age cybersecurity competition founded in 2025. Teams of up to four secondary-school students compete in rigorous CTF-style challenges over two official competition days.

### Can UK students register directly?

No. ICO is a national-team event. Each country must establish a delegation and selection process. The UK does not yet have a public national selection route.

### How is ICO different from ECSC?

ICO targets school-age students (up to age 20) and follows an olympiad model similar to IOI. ECSC is a broader European CTF for national teams, with the UK currently selecting players aged 18–25.

### Where should we check official rules and dates?

Visit ico-official.net for past and future editions, and the host website for the current year's rulebook.

## Data provenance

- **Sources:** Supabase activity/event catalogue; Olympiads editorial frontmatter (content/events)
- **Last generated:** 2026-07-20
- **Representative edition:** yes
- **Projected dates:** yes — treat as estimate

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