CTF & Competition Operations
Challenge design, platform and operation
People solve and compete, building skills in a way they enjoy, and you find the talent along the way.
We design challenges, the platform and how the event runs around your goal and participants' level.
How far have our people's skills come, and who inside or outside the organisation stands out?
Solve rates by field, each participant's strengths, the people to watch and what to learn next, written up for you.
Reviewed
When it fits
- You want to know where your people's skills stand
Competing by field and difficulty shows how far your people get with real challenges, and differences that everyday reviews never show.
- You are looking for hidden talent
You want to find the people who go deep in one field, whose ability rarely shows in day-to-day work.
- You want learning to stick
Adding a competition after training lets what people learned set in while they enjoy it, and leads on to what they learn next.
- You want to bring in your industry or the community
Hold a competition with organisations in your industry or with the wider security community, and meet talent from outside.
The SAFE SQUARE approach
Challenges built and checked for the purpose
Fields and difficulty are designed around whether you are looking for talent or checking what people learned, and every challenge is checked for quality and difficulty before the competition.
Scoring that shows hidden talent
Alongside total scores we look at how deep each person went in each field, so someone strong in one field stands out.
Challenges that look like your work
For internal and industry competitions, challenges are modelled on the customer's systems and work, so competing builds a feel for the real job.
What we handle
From the first challenge to the wrap-up, as much or as little as you need.
- Challenge design
Challenges and scenarios across fields such as web, systems (pwn), reversing and AI, designed and verified for your goal and difficulty range.
- Platform and infrastructure
The competition platform and the practice and participation environment, prepared in advance.
- Scoring and running the event
Scoring rules and running the competition.
- Learning around the event
Learning before and after the event, so competing turns into lasting skill.
Event formats
We suggest the format that fits your purpose and participants.
The format follows who takes part: people inside your organisation, your industry, or the wider community.
- Internal
Your own people compete, you see where their skills stand, and hidden talent inside the organisation comes into view.
- Industry
Organisations from the same industry compete together and share talent and experience across the sector.
- Public
Open to the wider community, to meet talent outside your organisation and connect with the security community.
How it runs
Plan
Set the goals, participants, scale and format.
Author and verify
Build the challenges and check their quality and difficulty.
Rehearse
Prepare the platform and run checks in advance.
Run
Run the competition while it is open, and deal with issues straight away.
Wrap up and record
Organise the results for the next course or event.
What you receive
We organise the results and hand them over, ready for the next training or contest.
Challenges and platform setup
The challenges and platform configuration, organised so they can be used again.
Scores and participation data
Scores, what was solved, and each participant's strengths and weaknesses.
Wrap-up report
Challenge write-ups, a summary of results and lessons for next time.
A path for strong participants
Top participants can be connected to mentoring, community and further learning.
Summary of a six-hour internal CTF
Participants: 40 people from development, security and IT · Challenges: 16 across web, systems (pwn), reversing and AI
| Field | Result | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Web | Strong | 31 of the 40 solved the basic challenges, and six solved the hardest one. |
| Reversing | Even | Solved evenly up to medium difficulty. |
| Systems (pwn) | Weak | Only five solved the basic challenges, so it is proposed as the next training topic. |
| AI | Talent found | The two who solved every AI challenge work outside the security teams. |
- People to watch
- We suggested connecting the two who finished the AI field and the six who solved the hardest web challenge to mentoring and advanced courses.
- Next step
- A workshop on systems (pwn) basics, then another competition in the same fields six months later to see what has changed.
How challenges, platform configuration and participant data may be reused is agreed with you in advance.