What is a CTF?

CTF is short for Capture the Flag. This is a popular version of hacking competition. Usually there is a remote machine that you connect to or files you download then to use your technical skills to get the flag which is usually a text.

Who is SANS?

SANS is an acronym for SysAdmin, Audit, Network, and Security. They are the worlds biggest Cybersecurity training and research organization renowned for their courses and certificates.

I saw the ad for this competition on instagram not having heard of sans. I didnt think much of it but applied regardless thinking it will be fun either way. Once my application was complete I was granted a space in the first round. The first round of three was over 24 hours. It would open at a specific time and close 24 hours later. First there was a short zoom call to explain what was going on there I learned that there was around 1300 participants. I was quite surprised and a little bit intimidated by its popularity. I also learned that to top 200 out of all those people would progress on to the next stage which was round 2 and 3 combined. So the challenge started at 11am same time as everyone. My sleep schedule was not the best at the time so I tried doing a little bit but then got really sleepy not even managing one. I was thinking this is not for me I dont know enough about these yet. I went to sleep again. When I woke up around 4 the same day. After waking up I checked the website to see that some people have already finished all 40 challenges listed which was mind boggling to me. After playing around some more and not getting anywhere I decided to clear my head and go outside. Around 7-8 I sat back down to give it another go. This time it was going better I started going through the challenges and had more confidence. Time passed by and it was 8 in the morning next day I was up all night doing these challenges and it would close at 11. I managed to break through the top 200 around 6 in the morning. I kept going to make sure I would keep the spot. When I was done I was sitting at 146th and the challenge closed like that.

I went to Birmingham it was a great opportunity to participate in a great event. I enjoyed every part of it and I am looking forward to more events like this. I was part of Team 21. We had very experienced players and existing cyber professionals. From 10 in the morning until 5 in the evening we played the TelNet challenge. It was a very challenging CTF but also very fun. As we have been told before the competition limited number of people had seen this challenge before and even less people had actually completed it. Even though we did not come first we still had great fun and a very gratifying experience. After the competition was over we were told we have generated vast amounts of data and that we were the best performing crowd that ever did this test in terms of score even though we had less time than other crowds.

Overall this has been a great learning experience and one that left me looking for more. I hope to be able to compete in events such as this in the future.