ACS ICT GISP students attempt to crack the Australian Schools Cyber Challenge final
Highlights
- The best cyber security students in the nation gathered in Brisbane this June for the final of the Australian Schools Cyber Challenge (ASCC).
The best cyber security students in the nation gathered in Brisbane this June for the final of the Australian Schools Cyber Challenge (ASCC). Organised by Cyberpathways, a cybersecurity company focused on the Education sector, this was the second year of the competition that has so far had 900 students compete. The challenge requires no prior knowledge and sees students in years 7-12 work in teams of 3 to 5 on a series of hyper realistic cyber challenges, where they learn essential theoretical knowledge and practical skill development to test their cyber security capabilities.
This year, 84 teams from around Australia competed across 3 online rounds spanning from March to June, with the top four teams of Merrimac State High School, Marist College Ashgrove, Queensland Academy for Health Sciences and Mentone College selected to contest the in-person final. This event also featured talks and interaction with several leading Cybersecurity companies such as Orro and Data3, as well as Grifith, QUT and La Trobe Universities. The student’s tasks in the final included tracing the path of a surveillance drone, breaching a secured vault, and decrypting data from a captured wireless network. From each of these tasks, a piece of a master key was revealed that the teams used to assemble the fragments needed to decrypt the challenge’s final message.
Teams only had 3 hours to complete all the tasks, with Mentone College being crowned the 2025 champions.
The ICT Gateway to Industry Schools project (ICT GISP) was proud to support ten teams from our network to enter this year, as we believe the ASCC works to encourage partnerships between industry, government, schools and their communities to address the significant shortfall of young, emerging ICT talent in Queensland.
Of note was the performance of Merrimac State High School who are the only team to ever make two consecutive ASCC finals. We offer our congratulations to Merrimac STEAM Academy Teacher Peter Darcy for helping make this happen at his school and for the impact the teams ASCC success is having.
A parent of a 2024 Merrimac student had this to say about the effect of the event on their student’s outlook: “This competition has been amazing for our daughter, Eden. She’d been considering her options but was not really sure about what career to pursue when she finishes Year 12 this year. But being involved with this competition and seeing how it made cyber security fun and enjoyable … she realised that this is a career opportunity she can pursue.”
Merrimac Principal Rachel Cutajar agrees, stating that: “The opportunity for our students to learn the skills of the future within a standard of competition such as the Cyber Security competition is exceptional. Experiences of this nature cement the future of the tech workforce of our country, making this opportunity second to none.”
No doubt the challenge will continue to grow next year, and schools can already sign up for 2026 here https://cyberpathways.com.au/ascc.
This ICT GISP project is proudly supported and funded by the Queensland Government and is facilitated by the Australian Computer Society. Learn more at https://qldictgisp.acs.org.au.
2025 Merrimac High School student finalists with coach Peter Darcy Image Gallery Link: ASCC 2025
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