2024 Target Cyber Defense Challenge
Last updated
Last updated
In 2022, WiCyS and Target teamed up to create a CTF for those beginning their cybersecurity journey and have held it every summer since. This year, they created a casino-themed Cyber Defense Challenge. The CTF officially started at July 18 at 8 pm CT, ran for three weeks, and ended on August 8 at 8 pm CT. While there were 1245 people in the Slack channel that was started for this (including Target employees) and it was stated that over 1200 people applied to play, there were only 793 players displayed on the Scoreboard and had completed P1 at the end. Only 19 players received perfect scores.
The Target team did a great job creating the many challenges. The tutorial was a great explanation for those new to the CTF world and the hints system was a great assist. Thankfully, I was able to complete all the challenges and am sharing my experience for all to learn. Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions.
Get ready for the third annual Target Cyber Defense Challenge! The challenge will give WiCyS members hands-on experience and a taste of what it’s like to be on a cyber defense team. From tackling intel-driven scenarios to experiencing current threats in the landscape, this challenge will offer many learning opportunities for members to hone their cybersecurity skills. In this year’s challenge, play both the threat actor and the defender during a high-stakes attack against a casino!
This engaging program is for WiCyS members to dive in, gain new learning experiences, network with an inclusive cohort of peers, work one-on-one with the Target cybersecurity team, and explore what incident response, threat detection, and threat intelligence are all about.
The top 10 participants will also receive a scholarship to attend the 2025 WiCyS Conference.
No previous cybersecurity experience is required to join this training since it’s a tiered, multi-staged learning opportunity.
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For this, I split the entire CTF into the three categories. You can find the challenges under their respective category. For each, there's a description and an expandable solution. Depending on the challenge, I also included hints that I created for some.
