A cybersecurity Capture the Flag (CTF) event is a competitive hacking event or exercise designed to challenge the participants’ problem-solving, coding, and cybersecurity skills. These events are often styled as games or competitions and can be held online or in person.

The primary purpose of a CTF event is to provide a safe and legal environment where individuals can practice hacking and cybersecurity skills. Participants, often organized into teams, are tasked with finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in software or systems, or defending systems from attacks, depending on the format of the event. It serves as an educational exercise to give participants experience in securing a machine, as well as conducting and reacting to the sort of attacks found in the real world. Cybersecurity CTFs are part of a broader effort to educate and prepare the next generation of cybersecurity professionals to protect against online threats. These events also help in raising awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and promote a culture of continuous learning and improvement.

What Happens in the Challenge?

Jeopardy-style Game Play: These are task-based challenges where each task is worth a certain number of points. Categories might include binary exploitation, reverse engineering, cryptography, web vulnerabilities, forensics, and more. The teams gain points by solving problems, and the team with the most points at the end of the event wins.