UNbreakable Romania 2026: Over 1,700 young people trained for a career in cybersecurity and the first competition where teams competed against an autonomous AI agent

UNbreakable Romania, the largest national cybersecurity education program for high school and university students, concluded its 2026 edition with approximately 1,700 participants engaged in activities designed to support their future career in cybersecurity. This year marked a first with the integration of artificial intelligence into the evaluation process, as participants competed directly against an autonomous AI agent. The format more closely reflects the realities of today’s industry landscape and the growing impact of technology on the cybersecurity field. The programme included an extended training phase, featuring 15 webinars and access to practical resources on the CyberEDU educational platform, followed by local competitions and an online team-based contest. A total of 294 teams registered for the online competition, representing a 40% increase compared to 2025, confirming the growing interest of young people in cybersecurity and their increasingly active participation in the program.

In parallel, UNbreakable Romania organised six training competitions in Bucharest, Vâlcea, Iași, Timișoara and Suceava, bringing together 266 participants from 60 high schools and 7 universities across 33 cities. For nearly 70% of them, this was their first Capture the Flag (CTF) experience, highlighting the rising interest in cybersecurity.

A new initiative introduced in 2026 was the #GirlsInCyber Bootcamp, a program designed to encourage young women to explore careers in cybersecurity. 20 participants from 8 cities took part in an intensive program delivered by 6 trainers, covering topics highly relevant to the job market, including the SOC Analyst role, real alert handling, network protocol attacks and introductory reverse engineering. Beyond the technical component, the bootcamp also provided a space for connection among participants, contributing to the development of a community of young women interested in cybersecurity and expanding the talent pool in the field. The initiative responds to the growing need for diversity in the industry and supports a more balanced gender representation in cybersecurity.

The 2026 final, held between 27-29 March, brought together the top 16 teams (8 high school and 8 university teams) in a premiere format: participants competed directly against an AI agent that solved tasks in real time. Competition data shows that the autonomous CyberEDU.AI agent, developed by a former winner of UNbreakable Romania 2025, solved 81.2% of the challenges and was the first to obtain the solution for 64.3% of them. The first three challenges were solved in under 15 minutes. The Digital Forensics category proved challenging for the autonomous agent, which failed to produce correct answers in these tasks. This difference highlights the essential role of analytical thinking, flexibility and human expertise in solving complex problems. In total, 44 participants competed over six hours for prizes exceeding EUR 5,000, in a format that reflects the increasing importance of collaboration between humans and technology in cybersecurity.

”The UNbreakable Romania 2026 edition showcased a major shift in how cybersecurity skills are built. We’re no longer talking about a traditional career path, but about professionals who must learn to work alongside Artificial Intelligence right from the start. The finals proved that while AI can accelerate performance, core knowledge and critical thinking still make the difference. The top participants became even better by leveraging these tools, signaling exactly where the industry is headed. UNbreakable Romania is no longer just a competition, but a training environment aligned with market realities, where we build practical skills relevant to the future of this field”, said Andrei Avădănei, CEO of Bit Sentinel.

”We support the development of a new generation of specialists capable of addressing the challenges of an increasingly complex digital ecosystem. This year’s edition, which for the first time integrated an autonomous AI agent into the competition, demonstrates how rapidly the field is evolving and how important it is for young people to develop not only strong technical skills, but also critical thinking and the ability to work alongside emerging technologies. Initiatives such as UNbreakable Romania directly contribute to strengthening Romania’s cybersecurity ecosystem and to preparing the talent that will protect the digital infrastructure of the future”, added Cristian Pațachia-Sultănoiu, Development & Innovation Manager at Orange Romania.

The UNbreakable Romania 2026 final featured 16 teams made up of the top high school and university students in the country. The high school category was won by a joint team from “Mihai Viteazul” and “Tudor Vianu” National Colleges in Bucharest, followed by teams from “Gheorghe Munteanu Murgoci” National College in Brăila and the International Computer High School of Constanța. In the university ranking, the top two positions were secured by joint teams from the University of Bucharest and the Polytechnic University of Bucharest, while third place went to the Polytechnic University of Timișoara.

The award ceremony took place in the presence of the Minister of Education, Mihai Dimian, who spoke about the importance of investing in education and the role of digital skills for Romania’s future. He emphasised the need for an education system adapted to new technological realities and congratulated the participants of the #GirlsInCyber community for their involvement. The importance of collaboration between the public sector, private sector and educational institutions was also reaffirmed, alongside the role of UNbreakable Romania’s partners – Orange, Bit Sentinel and CyberEDU – in developing the cybersecurity ecosystem and supporting national initiatives such as the Cybersecurity Olympiad.

This direction is becoming increasingly important in the context of more sophisticated cyberattacks and the growing role of artificial intelligence, both in defence and in offensive capabilities. At the same time, the skills gap remains one of the biggest challenges for organisations. According to the international CyberSecurity Workforce 2025 study conducted by ISC2, nearly 60% of companies face critical or significant shortages of practical skills in this field, while the gap between theory and application continues to be a major challenge for the labour market. In this context, UNbreakable Romania becomes more than an educational program, contributing directly to the development of a new generation of specialists.

Since its launch in 2020, the program has reached over 8,000 participants from more than 150 high schools and over 20 universities nationwide. The 2026 edition confirms this growth, including through the integration of artificial intelligence into the learning and evaluation process. For companies, UNbreakable Romania provides direct access to practically validated talent from a broad geographical area, including cities where recruitment is more challenging, through the CyberEDU educational platform. This contributes to reducing onboarding time and lowering the risks associated with recruitment processes.

About UNbreakable Romania

UNbreakable Romania is a national programme designed for high school and university students preparing for a career in cybersecurity or looking to enhance their knowledge in the field. The pilot edition took place in 2020, and since then UNbreakable has become an annual programme, engaging over 8,000 young people from dozens of universities and hundreds of high schools across Romania. Detailed results of the latest edition are available here.