The second edition of CyberSea Festival was launched on Monday, bringing together government officials, private-sector leaders and front-line cybersecurity specialists to kick off a project aiming to reshape how Romania trains its next generation of digital-security experts.

'The shortage of cybersecurity personnel is a pressing issue at both national and European level. The solution proposed by the organizers of CyberSea - Women4Cyber Romania, in collaboration with the National Cyber Security Directorate and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre - is to take technical education out of corporate conference rooms and move it into an environment that meets young people's expectations: a hands-on testing space disguised as a summer festival,' the organizers said in a statement.

Between July 28 and 30, 2026, the cybersecurity ecosystem relocates to Diplomatic Mamaia. Under this year's theme, CyberLANTIS, the festival splits its agenda into two distinct tracks.

During the day, the program is strictly technical: hackathons, live demonstrations and Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions run on isolated, air-gapped servers. Early-career participants work directly on attack-and-defense scenarios alongside experts who secure Romania's critical infrastructure.

After 4 p.m., the technical setting transitions into a full-scale summer festival with concerts and beach activities. The goal, organizers say, is to break down rigid hierarchies: students end up having informal beachside conversations with the same institutional leaders and tech giants for whom they would normally wait months to secure a formal meeting.

'Through the second edition of CyberSea, we continue what we started last year: bringing the next generation of experts to the same table - or in our case, the same beach - with front-line specialists. It's an environment where rigid hierarchies disappear, and practical testing and recruitment happen more naturally and efficiently,' said Fraga Tariuc, president and founder of Women4Cyber Romania.

The strategic importance of this training model is underscored by the unprecedented institutional backing for an event of this kind. CyberSea is organized in partnership with the National Cybersecurity Directorate and the European Cybersecurity Competence Centre, with direct support from the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Cyberint Center, the Special Telecommunications Service, ICI Bucharest and the Maritime University of Constanta.

Major private-sector players, including CEC Bank, Palo Alto Networks, Vodafone and Alpha by ZENDRA, are also endorsing the festival's unconventional model, investing in Romania's future digital-defense workforce. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)