Cyber Wales company, SudoCyber, ran a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition for the NCSC CyberFirst Girls Competition Event 2025 at the ICC
The top 10 Welsh teams from the competition celebrated their incredible cyber skills with the Capture the Flag competition and awards dinner!
The NCSC CyberFirst Programme team partnered with the Women in Cyber "Resilient Futures: Women in Cyber Conference" again this year, so that the girls can also hear from inspiring role models! The conference, was packed with exciting speakers.
All of this has been generously sponsored by organisations in the Welsh cyber ecosyetem, including SudoCyber and many other Cyber Wales member companies, who share the goal to create a more diverse generation of cyber professionals.
It was the incredible Pencoed Comprehensive Year 8 Girls team who won the day.
The event, a collaboration between CyberFirst Wales and Women in Cyber, highlighted the crucial need for greater female representation in the cyber industry—a sector that thrives on diversity and innovation. Since its founding in 2018, “About Women in Cyber” has been dedicated to addressing the visible lack of women in cybersecurity, and it was truly inspiring to witness our young learners stepping up to shape the future of this dynamic field.
Having already placed third in Wales during the November challenge, the team took on nine other top-performing schools in a high-stakes, three-hour hack and decrypt-athon.
With razor-sharp focus, they tackled decryption challenges, decomposed complex problems, and strategically collected cyber flags to earn points. An hour into the competition, their relentless dedication propelled them to second place. With just 40 minutes remaining, they surged into the lead, holding a commanding 90-point advantage. As the final minutes ticked down, the competition tightened, and with 15 minutes to go, the display screens were shut off, leaving all teams in suspense.
The final results were delivered during a lavish awards cermony, including a three course meal. To our sheer delight, Team “Sparkles”—Charlie, Amelia, Naomi, and Carys—were crowned the Champion of Champions with a phenomenal score of 980 points, leaving their closest competitors trailing at 730.
Their victory earned them a £50 Amazon voucher each, prestigious certificates, and the highly coveted SudoCyber Challenge Coin — an illustrious honor in the cyber industry. Of the three possible coins—Red for Accuracy, Blue for Points, and Silver for excellence in both — they were awarded the Silver, marking them as the ultimate Cyber Champions.