Building a Strong Digital Generation – The First Autumn School in Cybersecurity
Between September 15–20, 2025, the Technical University of Moldova and the National Institute for Innovations in Cybersecurity “Cybercor,” in partnership with the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu, organized, for the first time, an Autumn School dedicated to cybersecurity. The event brought together over 50 participants – students, master’s candidates, and faculty members from Romania and the Republic of Moldova – in an intensive program of lectures, practical laboratories, and interactive sessions.
The event was held within the framework of the UNDERSEA subproject, coordinated by UTM’s Vice-Rector for Finance and International Relations, Daniela Pojar, and funded by the World Bank through the Government of the Republic of Moldova’s “Higher Education” project.
Among the participating institutions were: the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Transilvania University of Brașov, Politehnica University of Timișoara, the “Gheorghe Lazăr” National College and “Octavian Ghibu” High School of Sibiu, together with the Technical University of Moldova.
The Technical University of Moldova was represented by a delegation including Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dumitru Ciorbă, Dean of the Faculty of Computers, Informatics and Microelectronics; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Andrian Prisăcaru, Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications; Dr. Ana Țurcan, Vice-Dean of FCIM; and Valentina Astafi, Coordinator of the “Information Security” study program at FCIM.
A central role in coordinating both the theoretical and practical activities was held by Marius Dumitrașcu, Head of the Department of Research, Training and Partnerships at CYBERCOR, who oversaw the full academic and applied dimension of the school. His involvement enabled participants to engage with real-life cybersecurity scenarios and to acquire essential applied skills in the field.
The program of the Autumn School began with sessions focusing on the configuration of working environments and the analysis of current trends in the field. It continued with exercises on topics such as web application security, critical infrastructures, attack and defense techniques, digital forensics, and embedded systems security. The thematic agenda also addressed current issues, including the use of artificial intelligence in cyber conflicts and ransomware behavior analysis through reverse engineering.
The event featured renowned experts from partner companies and institutions, including Robert Bordei and Adrian Stănilă (Visma), Alexandru Domnițeanu (DMI-Automotive), Emil Cebotaroș and Emanuel Strugaru (Cybercor/Codwer), as well as mentors Octavian Magdei and Alexandru Tocan (Cybercor/Codwer).
The final day was dedicated to a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition, where teams tackled complex challenges in the fields of Web, Forensics, Misc, and Reverse Engineering. On the same day, two keynote presentations were delivered: The Human Firewall, presented by Alexa-Ștefana Josephs (DNSC), and Balancing National Cybersecurity and Academic Freedom for Research, presented by Stelian Cristea, Deputy Director of DNSC.
The Autumn School in Cybersecurity concluded with the validation of results, the awarding of participation certificates, and the presentation of future internship and mentoring opportunities, thereby strengthening collaboration between academia and the professional cybersecurity community.