Advent of Cyber 2025: Learn, Give Back & Build Real Cyber Skills

Advent of Cyber is back and bigger than ever.
Every December, thousands of learners take on TryHackMe’s free, beginner-friendly cyber security event: 24 days, 24 challenges, one released each day, all wrapped inside a festive, story-driven adventure!  And with a massive $150,000 prize pool, including certifications, subscriptions, tech, and exclusive sponsor prizes from Portswigger!  

Whether you're starting your cyber journey or sharpening your skills, Advent of Cyber gives you real technical capability in a fun, guided format. It’s free, accessible, and built for everyone, no matter your background, age, or experience level.

But Advent of Cyber 2025 isn’t just about learning and winning.
This year, your participation directly supports CyberSafe’s work to empower women and underserved communities across Africa.

Let’s break down what this year brings.

What You’ll Learn This December

This year’s Advent of Cyber will walk you through (and challenge you on) many new and existing topics! Every daily task features a walkthrough video created by some of your favourite content creators in our field.

You can expect topics such as:

• Exploitation with cURL
• Web Attack Forensics
• Phishing Detection
• Malware Analysis
• AWS Security
• Linux CLI
• SOC Alert Triage
• Password Cracking
• Splunk Basics
• …and so much more

From complete beginners to aspiring professionals, everyone can participate and succeed.

CyberSafe & TryHackMe: Learning That Transforms Lives

This year, TryHackMe is partnering with CyberSafe Foundation, one of Africa’s leading non-profits dedicated to bridging the digital divide and unlocking opportunities for women and underserved communities.

This isn’t a surface-level partnership. It’s deeply aligned with the heart of Advent of Cyber: making cyber education accessible to everyone.

That’s where Advent of Cyber participants come in.

By simply taking part in AoC completing rooms, answering questions, and showing up each day you directly support CyberSafe’s mission.
TryHackMe will be contributing to CyberSafe’s Device Donation Program, helping provide the technology needed for learners to begin or continue their cyber security journey.

Your learning becomes their opportunity.
Your progress fuels their future.

Why this matters

Thousands of aspiring cyber learners in Africa  especially women, students or those in disadvantaged communities have passion and potential. What they often lack is access: to devices, to training, to mentorship. CyberSafe works to remove these barriers through initiatives like:

• CyberGirls Fellowship: Empowering young women to build cyber careers
• DigiGirls: Delivering foundational digital and security skills to girls who otherwise might never get exposure
• Device Donation Program: Providing hardware and internet-ready devices for learners who need them

This year, Advent of Cyber doesn’t just build cyber security skills.
It helps build cyber security careers for those who need the chance most.

PortSwigger: Empowering the Next Wave of Cyber Talent

For over 15 years, PortSwigger has helped shape how the world learns, practices, and advances web security. Their philosophy is simple: great security professionals are built on solid fundamentals and the agility to adapt as tools and threats evolve.

This year, PortSwigger joins Advent of Cyber as a key prize partner supporting learners with industry-leading tools that accelerate skill development.

What They’re Contributing

PortSwigger is sponsoring:

• 5 Burp AI-enabled Burp Suite Professional licenses
• 100 free entries to the Burp Suite Certified Practitioner exam

Burp Suite, trusted by 88,000+ professionals worldwide, gives learners a safe and powerful environment to build real pentesting expertise.
With Burp AI, participants can:

• Validate vulnerabilities faster
• Craft smarter payloads
• Automate repetitive tasks
• Strengthen web application testing fundamentals
• Accelerate their learning with AI-powered guidance

Their support ensures that new and aspiring defenders have access to the tools and opportunities needed to confidently step into the industry.

The Spirit of AoC 2025

This year, Advent of Cyber brings together three powerful pillars:

1. Free, accessible learning for everyone
2. Life-changing impact through CyberSafe
3. Career-boosting prizes and tools from PortSwigger

It’s more than a festive challenge.
It’s a month of growth, opportunity, and giving back powered by a global community of learners who believe in making cyber security accessible for all.