A technology club from the Isle of Man has scored high in a UK-wide competition based on cyber security.

Code Club, a Manx educational charity which specialises in digital skills and cyber defence, held the first qualifying round in the tenth year of the ‘CyberCenturion’ annual competition.

The club takes part in CyberCenturion every year, a national cyber security challenge which presents teams of up to four secondary school students with tasks such as system hardening, securing user accounts and forensic screening.

Teams can compete in either the junior (14 and under) or senior (18 and under) divisions, as one of four categories: all boy, all girl, mixed or cadet teams.

A spokesperson for Code Club said: ‘The initiative is designed to excite, educate and motivate students to pursue further education and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and cybersecurity.

‘This year, for the club’s ninth year taking part in the competition, we fielded six teams, including experienced teams such as “I am Root” and novice teams like “The BrotherBoard”, both in the junior boys category.

‘For the first time ever, the club was proud to present teams in three different categories: all boys, all girls, and mixed teams.

‘For the first round in CyberCenturion X, the club’s top two teams, “CyberAces” (senior boys) and “I am Root” (junior boys) both hit a top score of 200 points in a time of exactly two hours and 1 hour and 48 minutes respectively. This placed the teams in second and third place overall.

‘The club’s remaining teams also performed well in the challenge, with the team “$udo” (senior boys) scoring 154 points, and the other three junior teams, “The BrotherBoard”, “The Cubes” and “Slaying Alphas” scoring between 79 and 85 points.’

Adam Drummond, a coordinator of CyberCenturion at Code Club, said: ‘The competition brings an experience to these students that they would not get in school, and it is fantastic to see just how passionate these teams are.’

Owen Cutajar, the chairman of Code Club, said: ‘Once again, our CyberCenturion teams have made us proud!

‘We had a range of achievements, from past champions excelling in their category, all the way to brand new contestants who demonstrated amazing resilience while learning new skills.

‘Watching them rise up to the challenge was truly inspiring, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they achieve in the next round.

‘Our thanks go to everyone who made this event possible. Our volunteers selflessly give up their time to help and motivate our members.’

Code Club has been nominated for the ‘teams working together award’ at Media Isle of Man’s Awards for Excellence which takes place on Thursday, November 16.