Girls from Surrey have qualified for the final of a contest to find the UK’s best cyber security talent of tomorrow after placing in the top one per cent of thousands of entrants.

The four girls in Team Tiffin 14, from The Tiffin Girls’ School, were amongst 4,500 to enter the CyberFirst Girls Competition, organised by the National Cyber Security Centre, which is part of GCHQ.

They will now travel to Manchester in March to take on nine other teams in a live final that will test their intellect and technological skills to tackle a series of cyber security problems based on a real-world scenario.

In a statement, the school said: "Being part of the Cyberfirst competition is a great honour, shock and a marvellous opportunity for us.

“We are so excited and thrilled. The journey we have gone through is unbelievable and we are delighted that we have come this far.

“We want to thank NCSC for presenting us with this amazing experience”.

The competition is now in its second year and organisers hope it will spark a lifelong interest in competitors who could turn it into a career in cyber security.

A total of 1,270 teams comprising of up to four girls aged 12 to 13 fought for points by completing challenges in the preliminary online round. Of the 170 logic puzzles devised by GCHQ and NCSC masterminds, only 14 remained unsolved.