Engaging youth to forge a robust future for cybersecurity in Serbia
Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important as companies, governments, and individuals across the globe are more and more reliant on IT systems, which are vulnerable to malicious actions. This digital transformation has made security a priority for organizations of every size, and for societies likewise.
“The frequency, sophistication, and complexity of cyberattacks are on the rise,” warns Milan Vojvodić, Head of the Regulatory Affairs Unit at the Ministry for Information and Telecommunications. This stark reality underscores the urgent need for more individuals to enter the cybersecurity field.
Recognizing the important role the youth play in cybersecurity, the Mission to Serbia highlights the work of the well-known Serbian private-public partnership with the CSN Foundation and its Cyber Hero Programme to popularize the topic of cybersecurity among university and high school students in Serbia. The programme offers mentoring, special training and participation in national and international competitions.
On 14 May, together with the CSN Foundation the Mission organized the 2024 National Cybersecurity Challenge Finals in Serbia, followed by an awards ceremony.
“Becoming a cybersecurity expert typically takes around nine years. However, if you start competing at 17 years or younger, by the time you complete your university studies, you'll already have gained valuable experience and be ready to work in the sector,” said Imre Lendak, a professor at the Faculty of Technical Sciences at the University of Novi Sad. Lendak, a member of the CSN Foundation and one of the creators of the Cyber-Hero Programme, believes in the importance of exposing future cybersecurity professionals to the field at an early age.
Since 2022, the Mission has been the CSN Foundation’s strategic partner in organizing the national cybersecurity competition for youth, one of the most significant events under the Cyber Hero Programme’s umbrella. The national competition winners have a chance to be selected for the national team and participate in the European Cybersecurity Challenge, organized by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA). Attendance of the Serbian team at the European competitions is also being supported by the Mission.
The number of participants in the national competition has grown year by year. From just 165 applicants in 2022, none of whom were female, the number grew to 243 applicants in 2024, including 32 girls.
Milan Vojvodić noted the lack of people in this important field, and said he hopes that these competitions will attract more young people interested in contributing to Serbia’s cybersecurity landscape.
Breaking gender stereotypes in cybersecurity
Although the number of girls participating in the national competition has grown in the past few years, they are still underrepresented in the Cyber Hero Programme and the cybersecurity field as a whole.
Aiming to demonstrate that cybersecurity is for girls too, the OSCE Mission to Serbia partnered with the CSN Foundation to send an all-female delegation of eight from Serbia to compete at the Western Balkans Cyber Camp in Albania in May. Three of the girls from Serbia were part of the first-place team. These types of events, endorsed by the Mission, align with our commitment to promote OSCE values and engage youth with cybersecurity topics. It also promotes gender mainstreaming by encouraging young girls to challenge the stereotype that cybersecurity is a profession reserved for men.
“It was an excellent introduction to cybersecurity” said Emilija Balaž, one of the competitors who said she decided to compete because she was “genuinely interested” in the topic.
Another member of the Serbian team, Milica Spasojević, highlighted how this experience helped her connect with the topic and other young people. “We met people with similar interests from across the region; in the future, this will mean a lot for us, I think it gave us direction,” she said.
Nebojša Jokić, Executive Director of the CSN Foundation, said that with the hope of nurturing and retaining cybersecurity talent in Serbia, the Cyber Hero Programme “introduces young people to the field and helps them connect with one another,” adding that there is an effort to increase the participation of “more high schoolers and more girls” to further increase the resonance of the programme among young people.
Future plans
The Mission’s commitment to raising awareness about cybersecurity among Serbian youth stems from the need for collective action to address the evolving threats in this area. Through initiatives such as the Cyber Hero Programme, the National Cybersecurity Challenge and educational programmes, the Mission aims to provide young talents with the knowledge and skills necessary to safeguard against cyber threats in order to strengthen our collective resilience against these and forge a safer digital future for all.
The Mission will continue supporting Cyber Hero and other national educational programmes concerning cybersecurity, including national, regional and international cybersecurity competitions.
Through these efforts, the Mission’s overall aim is to enhance technical capabilities, reinforce strategic frameworks, and foster inclusive partnerships with state institutions, businesses, academia, civil society, and other stakeholders in the realm of cybersecurity, ultimately boosting resilience to cyber threats and making the fight against these accessible to all.
