(MENAFN- Trend News Agency) BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 9.​ The official opening ceremony of the CIDC 2025-Critical Infrastructure Defence Challenge cybersecurity festival is being held at the Baku Convention Center, Trend reports.

The event is being jointly organized by the State Service for Special Communications and Information Security and the State Security Service.

This year, a total of 2,245 visitors, 934 training participants, 51 teams, and 56 partner organizations joined the CIDC-2025 event.

The main goal of the festival is to share advanced international practices in the field of critical infrastructure protection, information security, digital stability, and the application of artificial intelligence, as well as to strengthen cooperation between the public and private sectors.

During the two days, there will be an opportunity to get acquainted with the Cyberwarfare in Smart Cities competition, 10 presentations and five panel discussions by local and foreign experts on cybersecurity, six free trainings under the Hack The Future 2 program of the first cyber school in Azerbaijan, and an exhibition of cybersecurity solutions that combines the state-of-the-art technologies and trends in cybersecurity.

At the cybersecurity exhibition, 41 local and foreign companies will present the latest technologies in the fields of information security, risk management, and network protection.

The virtual cyberwarfare competition, which forms the main part of the event, will be held this year based on the concept of cyberwarfare in smart cities.

As many as 20 local and, for the first time, five foreign teams representing government agencies and critical infrastructure, banking, and telecommunications sectors will participate in the competition.

Among them are teams from the UAE, Uzbekistan, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The winning teams will receive a prize fund of 30,000 manat ($17,650).

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