Empowering Cybersecurity Outreach And Learning

The talk looks at what capture-the-flag challenges can do for security communities when they are run alongside an annual incident response conference. The speakers, who organise the challenges for the FIRST conference, argue that these events do more than test technical skill. They bring people from different countries and professional backgrounds together, and they help build the trust that matters when responders later work on incidents across borders.

The middle of the talk covers design and operations. Non-technical challenges such as legal, communication and language puzzles widen participation, and a story-driven theme keeps players engaged. The speakers describe how plain scoring can discourage people near the bottom of a leaderboard, so they favour tasks that reward collaboration between competing teams. They also cover difficulty mismatches, where a challenge expected to be easy went unsolved while another seen as hard was finished quickly, and they recommend test groups before launch. Cheating such as multiple accounts and flag hoarding is discussed, along with monitoring submission logs and using dynamic flags.

To close, the speakers tie the format to active learning and repetition, noting that direct feedback from scoring and debriefs with challenge authors helps participants retain what they practised. They point to a permanent platform hosting hundreds of challenges and invite others to contribute. Practitioners who run similar events get concrete advice on balance, fairness and organisation.