NCCDC: National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition
Started in 2004, the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition was established with the aim of providing a template for cyber security organizations at the collegiate level as well as provide infrastructure for competitions between schools with cyber security organizations. Schools sign up for the annual competitions by first joining competition in the geographic region in which they are located. Competition then proceeds from qualifiers, to regional competition, to national competition.
Pwn2Own
Pwn2Own is a hacking contest presented annually at the CanSecWest Conference. The contests challenge cyber security professionals to find flaws and exploit consumer software and devices. $100,000’s in prizes are available annually for contest winners.
Pwnium
Pwnium is presented by Google and often takes place at the same location as Pwn2Own at the CanSecWest Conference. Challenges center around finding vulnurabilities in Chrome OS. In the past, several million dollars in prize money has been available to winning partipants.
Pitcoctf
PicoCTF is a cyber security competition available to middle and high school students. The event is put on by Carnegie Mellon University, and places teams into an intereactive environment and storyline where they must hack, decrypt, reverse engineer, and break different sandbox elements. The competition is the largest cyber security competititon available to middle and high schoolers.
U.S. Cyber Challenge
The US Cyber Challenge is presented by the Center for Internet Security, and offers a number of cyber security competitions. Competitions occur online and through the number of summer camps hosted by the USCC organization.
DEF CON Contests
Probably the largest cyber security conference, DEF CON presents a wide range of contents that often change from year to year. Common competitions include hacking, lockpicking, scavenger hunts, and the highly prestigious capture the flag contest. The conference takes place in Las Vegas annually.
Panoply
Panoply is a network assessment and network defense competition put on by the University of Texas at San Antonio. The timed event is put on at large conferences every year. In the competition, teams accumulate points through controlling and operating critical network resources such as SMTP, DNS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SSH. Throughout the competition, additional resources are added to the common pool that both teams are fighting over, forcing teams to choose between attempting to control new resources or defending existing resources.
CSAW Capture the Flag (CTF)
The Cyber Security Awareness Week was founded by NYU Tandon Engineering School and is now celebrated around the world. With locations in North America, the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, the event is the largest student-run cyber security event in the world. Part of each year’s events include the prestigious capture the flag. Additionally, an applied research competition, embedded security challenge, and policy challenge are present. 2016 saw over 10,000 preliminary competitors at the high school and collegiate levels.
NCL: National Cyber League
The National Cyber League was created in 2011 as a educational and recruiting tool. Every “game” that cyber security students and professionals participate in is built around learning objectives. For those seeking work, a “scouting report” can give future employers a glimpse of a participant’s technical chops, time management, and ability to deal with pressure. Games are hosted in the “NCL Stadium” a cloud-based environment for competitions throughout an annual “season.”
SANS NetWars
The SANS Institute offers a series of challenge types through their NetWars modules. These challenges are available for a wide variety of skill levels, and even feature a minituarized physical city over which challenge participants can attempt to compete for the cyber resources. The annual Tournament of Champions is hosted at the CDI Conference in which those who qualify through winning NetWars competitions face off. A wide range of competitions are available throughout the year in locations around the world.
CyberPatriot
CyberPatriot is a program established for the K-12 education of students in cyber security by the Air Force Association. There are three branches of the program, including the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, AFA CyberCamps, and Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative. The Cyber Defense Competition starts at the state and then regional level. Top competitors are then given an all-expense paid trip to the national finals in Baltimore, Maryland. At nationals, participants compete for national recognition and scholarship money.
Mitre Cyber Academy
Mitre presents it’s annual STEM Capture the Flag challenge that is open to both current students and professionals. While current professionals may compete in the competition for education and training purposes, only eligible high school and college teams will be able to obtain winning prizes, scholarships, and internships. Mitre presents a wide range of other competitions throughout the year.