Wins
My various achievements, with supporting evidence :)
European CyberSecurity Challenge 2026 #
My fifth consecutive ECSC and third as captain. Hungary finished 15th among the 35 competing countries and 17th overall out of 42 teams, our strongest placing across my five editions. The final scoreboard includes seven guest teams; the US and Canada sit above Hungary, explaining the two-rank difference. The contest combined jeopardy challenges with attack/defence, keeping our own services running while exploiting other teams’ systems.
- 4th
Hungarian CyberSecurity Challenge 2026 #
Fourth of 54 seniors and thirteenth of 172 competitors overall in the 23–26 April individual competition. The event page describes 72 hours of CTF and forensic-image tasks. Everyone tackles the same challenges, with separate junior, senior and overall rankings. HCSC also serves as a qualification route towards the Hungarian ECSC team.
English translation of Certificate
This certifies that David Imolai participated in the Hungarian Cyber Security Challenge organised by the National Cybersecurity Center on 23–26 April 2026. He placed fourth of 54 competitors in the senior category and 13th of 172 overall. Budapest, 6 May 2026.
- 21st
European CyberSecurity Challenge 2025 #
My second ECSC as captain of the Hungarian team, coordinating communication and cooperation while continuing to solve challenges. We finished thirteenth in jeopardy and twenty-first of 34 countries overall. My competition note describes the captain’s role alongside technical work.
Text of certificate
Certificate of Attendance presented to Dávid Imolai for participating as a team member of Team Hungary. ECSC 2025, Warsaw, Poland, 6–9 October 2025.
- 8th
Hungarian CyberSecurity Challenge 2025 #
I finished eighth among seniors and twelfth overall in the 24–27 April individual competition: my first senior-category HCSC after three years as a junior. Later that season I competed with the Hungarian team at ECSC in Warsaw.
English translation of Certificate
This certifies that David Imolai participated in the Hungarian Cyber Security Challenge organised by the National Cyber Security Centre on 24–27 April 2025. He placed 12th overall in the individual competition and eighth in the senior category.
- 13th
Hack The Box Cyber Apocalypse CTF 2025 #
Our Hungarian Cyber Security Team finished thirteenth out of 8,130 teams, solving all 77 challenges for 57,025 points during the 21–26 March competition. The team’s public report details our experience, with work across reverse engineering, cryptography, forensics and web exploitation.
Text of certificate
Certificate of Participation. Cyber Apocalypse CTF 2025: Tales from Eldoria. Username: David Imolai. Team: Hungarian Cyber Security Team. Team rank: 13th out of 8,130 teams. Solved challenges: 77/77. Total points: 57,025. CTF dates: 21–26 March 2025.
- 26th
European CyberSecurity Challenge 2024 #
My first ECSC as captain, following two editions as a junior team member. I continued to solve challenges while taking responsibility for cooperation between players; Hungary finished twenty-sixth of 31 countries. Turin hosted the tenth edition at Officine Grandi Riparazioni.
Text of certificate
European Cybersecurity Challenge 2024. Certificate of Attendance presented to Dávid Imolai for participating as captain of Team Hungary. 8–11 October, Turin, Italy.
- 4th
Hungarian CyberSecurity Challenge 2024 #
Fourth in the junior category, completing three consecutive years among the top five after third-place finishes in 2022 and 2023. Later in 2024 I became captain of the Hungarian team and competed at ECSC in Turin. This was also the first year when I had to juggle university studies with this CTF competition, as I had started my Computer Science BSc at ELTE in September 2023.
English translation of Certificate
Diploma awarded to David Imolai for fourth place in the junior category of the Hungarian Cyber Security Challenge 2024 IT security competition. Budapest, 2024.
- 42nd
Hack The Box University CTF 2023 #
Team ELTE finished forty-second out of 955 teams at Hack The Box’s “Brains & Bytes” University CTF, solving 12 of 22 challenges for 3,525 points during 8–10 December.
Text of certificate
Certificate of Participation. University CTF: Brains & Bytes. Username: David Imolai. Team: ELTE. Team rank: 42nd out of 955 teams. Solved challenges: 12/22. Total points: 3,525. CTF dates: 8–10 December 2023.
European CyberSecurity Challenge 2023 #
My second year representing Hungary, with the team finishing twenty-fourth of 28 countries. A bootcamp in Vienna preceded the event, combining talks and practical CTF training with work alongside teams from other countries. The Hungarian team also had its own bootcamp, and in-house CTF, to prepare for the international event.
- Third
Hungarian CyberSecurity Challenge 2023 #
My second consecutive third place in the junior category at the national competition. While last year had a larger focus on Linux boxes, this year had a larger batch of traditional (crypto, web, pwn) challenges. HCSC also feeds into selection and preparation for the Hungarian ECSC team: the organiser’s overview describes the individual online contest and subsequent team training. Later that year I represented Hungary at ECSC in Hamar, Norway.
English translation of Certificate
Diploma awarded to David Imolai for third place in the junior category of the Hungarian Cyber Security Challenge 2023 IT security competition. Budapest, 3 August 2023.
European CyberSecurity Challenge 2022 #
My first ECSC, representing Hungary after third place in the junior category of the national qualifier. We finished twenty-first of 28 countries in Vienna. This was the first year that Hungary sent a national team to ECSC, for which the Hungarian CyberSecurity Team was founded.
- Third
Hungarian CyberSecurity Challenge 2022 #
Third place in the junior category began my route into the Hungarian national team. The contest is a jeopardy CTF involving web security, cryptography, pwn, forensic investigation of virtual machines among other challenges. This was the first year that the contest was held as an individual competition rather than in teams. After the national qualifier, I represented Hungary at ECSC in Vienna that September.
English translation of Certificate
Diploma awarded to David Imolai for third place in the junior category of the Hungarian Cyber Security Challenge 2022 IT security competition.