On March 16, 516 competitors from all over Brazil, 18 of whom were in person at SENAI Paulo Antônio Skaf, in São Caetano do Sul (SP), participated in the Capture The Flag (CTF) Hackers do Bem cybersecurity challenge.  

Capture the Flag (CTF) is a technology modality in which participants attempt to solve as many challenges as possible in the shortest possible time, related to exploiting vulnerabilities in systems, breaking encryption, solving puzzles and other problems related to cybersecurity. Competitors test their knowledge and skills by solving challenges on different topics, such as answering questions, performing security tasks; and capturing a “flag”.   

The competition lasted 6 hours and offered different levels of challenges to the students, who had to regain control of the financial operations of the so-called Fictitious Bank, dominated by the artificial intelligence FinanceGuard, which rebelled against the very system that used it as security technology. In addition to solving the problem, the competitors also had to prevent new threats.  

Held by RNP and SENAI SP, the event had a technical partnership with GoHacking for the development of the game and sponsorship from Calriz, Google Cloud and Google. The top 15 winners received prizes of up to R$6,000.00 in gift cards. The total prize pool was R$20,000.00. 

“It was a hybrid event full of learning and fun,” said Michelle Wangham, RNP’s Cybersecurity Research and Development Manager. “I would like to thank the RNP team that dedicated themselves to planning and executing the CTF, GoHacking for their technical partnership in the challenges and platform, the SENAI SP employees who supported us and provided us with incredible infrastructure, the sponsors who made the prizes possible and, most importantly, the 516 competitors who accepted the invitation, got involved and captured many flags.”  

Ana Vitória, a Computer Science student at the University of São Paulo (USP), one of the representatives of the female section of the competition, reached 10th place in the overall CTF ranking. She was the only in-person participant in the 15+ ranking of the challenge.  

The event is part of the Hackers do Bem program, an initiative carried out in partnership by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI), SOFTEX, SENAI SP and RNP, which offers free cybersecurity training, regardless of experience level. There are five learning paths, from leveling to technological residency, with synchronous and asynchronous classes. Learn more on the program's official website.  

Check out the photos from the event on Flickr.