Islamabad: Kaspersky announces the registration opening for its brand-new Kaspersky{CTF} (Capture the Flag) competition, inviting academic and corporate teams from around the globe to compete in a battle of skill, strategy and innovation. The competition will run in five regional streams, with the winning teams of each stream getting a unique opportunity to join the finals as part of Kaspersky’s Security Analyst Summit in Thailand on October 25-28 and compete for an $18,000 prize pool.
In an era where cyberthreats continue to evolve, Kaspersky remains committed to fostering cybersecurity talent and upskilling cybersecurity professionals worldwide to help them counter the constantly developing threat landscape. In May, Kaspersky hosted SAS CTF (Security Analyst Summit Capture the Flag) qualifiers for the community of cybersecurity researchers, defining eight teams that will meet at the finals. The new CTF competition — Kaspersky{CTF} — is designed to reach out to an even broader audience of researchers and bring together teams from academic and corporate fields, offering a platform for both rising talents and established experts to test their skills on a grand scale.
Registration for the competition is open for the participating teams, here. To register their team, potential participants should choose one of the regional streams from North America, South America and the Caribbean; Europe; the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa; Russia and the CIS; Asia and Oceania.
To complete registration, all participants will have to verify their affiliation with a recognized institution or organization, using emails with corporate or academic domains.
On August 30-31, the teams, that passed the registration, will step up to the 24-hour online CTF tournament that will define regional winners. During the challenge, they will face cutting-edge cybersecurity tasks, ranging from cryptography and reverse engineering to web security, and undoubtedly AI.
The winners of five regional Kaspersky{CTF} streams will have an opportunity to receive an exclusive invitation and travel coverage to the SAS CTF 2025 on-site finals in Thailand to compete for the main prize together with eight SAS CTF finalists.
“Organizations supporting or participating in CTFs not only strengthen internal cyber capabilities but also signal a proactive commitment to talent development and industry leadership. For young researchers, Kaspersky{CTF} is a unique opportunity to meet the real-world challenges and realize that work in cybersecurity is worth it,”  commented Igor Kuznetsov, Director of Kaspersky’s Global Research & Analysis Team.
In preparation for the main event, Kaspersky will organize a series of educational sessions designed to enhance participants’ competitive readiness. These webinars will cover teaser tasks and strategies for effective CTF performance at SAS CTF finals.
