The Security and Audit Group (GSyA) of the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) has organised, on 5 November 2026, a new edition of Hack&Win, the cybersecurity competition held at the Higher School of Informatics (ESI) in Ciudad Real, within the activities of Santa Tecla.

This year's edition has featured 65 participants distributed across 18 teams, consolidating Hack&Win as one of the most interesting activities among ESI students. As a major novelty, the competition has taken place in person at the school's facilities, promoting interaction among participants and creating a particularly dynamic competition environment.

Another major novelty has been the inclusion of physical cybersecurity challenges, which have complemented the traditional virtual challenges. In total, GSyA has prepared 17 challenges, including activities related to the analysis and exploitation of vulnerabilities in real devices, such as drones, rocket launchers and scale models of tanks. This combination has allowed participants to test their knowledge and skills in practical scenarios related to the security of software, hardware and connected devices.

The competition, held under the Capture the Flag (CTF) format, has presented various ethical hacking challenges, in which teams have had to apply their technical knowledge, analytical ability and collaborative work to achieve the highest possible score.

After an intense day of competition, the team La Cuadrilla has been declared winner of Hack&Win 2026, with 490 points, followed by 404, with 450 points, and Root4, with 410 points.

This edition has taken place within the framework of the activities of the research projects Di4SPDS and AURORA, in which GSyA participates, reinforcing the group's commitment to practical training, dissemination and promotion of vocations in the field of cybersecurity.

The event has had the sponsorship of the Official College of Informatics Engineering of Castilla-La Mancha (COIICLM), which has contributed with a total prize fund of 1,000 euros.

From GSyA, we would like to congratulate the winning teams and thank the participation, enthusiasm and effort of all the students, as well as the collaboration of the ESI and the COIICLM, which have contributed to the success of this new edition of Hack&Win.