CyberChallenge.IT@UnivAQ: A Cybersecurity Educational Training Path for High School and University Students

We are experiencing the core of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, living in a digitally interconnected world. This digital interconnectedness has improved social interactions and work efficiency but has also led to an increase in the frequency and complexity of cybersecurity threats. Consequently, the need for cybersecurity professionals has exponentially increased. However, there is a shortage of cybersecurity professionals, and their training is a constant battle due to the lack of specific cybersecurity training. Thus, became imperative to create cybersecurity programs aimed at producing cybersecurity professionals. The present paper goes in this direction by presenting the CyberChallenge.IT, a pioneering cybersecurity program for high school and university students aged 16–24, in the University of L’Aquila (UnivAQ) venue: CyberChallenge.IT@UnivAQ. Moreover, we analyzed the registration number of high school and university students at the UnivAQ program during the editions from 2020 to 2023. The preliminary results are worrying, with a considerable decrease in registration numbers in 2023. The awareness of this decrease has led us to propose and implement strategic activities to improve the success of such program. Concluding, this paper paves the way for a reflection on how to effectively address the cybersecurity challenges of the near future, which are expected to be even more interconnected than the current ones.