Albania has closed its 2025 National Cyber Security Marathon, a months-long competition run by the National Authority for Cybersecurity to build human capacity and surface new talent. More than 1,000 people applied and over 500 competed across three categories: universities and vocational schools, women and girls, and persons with disabilities. The technical challenges ran on SimSpace, funded by the U.S. State Department, and covered incident analysis and management, proactive simulations and complex scenario resolution. AKSK Director General Igli Tafa called it a concrete mechanism for identifying talent and building the professional capacity needed to protect critical infrastructure. Education Minister Mirela Kumbaro pressed further: cybersecurity must become a shared culture across families, schools and young people, not the preserve of specialists.
