Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 International Capture the Flag!
The top undergraduate team, the b01lers, hailed from Purdue University. This assembly of ten ambitious students climbed the ranks after a slow start, but then retained the lead, solidifying their reputation as formidable hackers.
Congratulations are also due to the UCSB teams hack_of_all_trades and super cow powers who finished in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. There were 38 undergraduate teams participating in this year's iCTF. Click here for a partial scoreboard.
Pictured above, the triumphant "where's my pwnthic cakes" were the winners of the high school track. This was a team of only three young hackers from Çorlu Arif Nihat Asya Anadolu Lisesi -- Arif Nihat Asya Anatolian High School -- in Turkey. The pwnthic cakes were neck and neck with the KingsofCyber at first, but then pulled ahead for a strong finish. They demonstrated some innovative approaches, a collaborative spirit, and endless tenacity during the AI-focused CTF competition.
There were 10 talented and ambitious teams in this first event high school iCTF. The second place finishers were the Cyb3r C@ts, from Mountain View High School in Stafford County, Virginia. In third place were the KingsofCyber at Alliance Academy of Innovation in Cumming, Georgia. Click here for the full scoreboard.
The 2023 iCTF began on December 2, 2023, at 10 am, Pacific Time, and ended on December 8, 2023, at 4 pm, Pacific Time. The event was sponsored by the ACTION NSF AI Institute, and was organized by Shellphish and the UCSB Women in Computer Science group. We wish to give special thanks for the WiCS chapters at the ACTION Institute's partnering institutions for their help in recruiting and promotion.
Of note, the 2023 edition of the competition had a different design and scope than any of the previous editions. First of all, the competition moved from its traditional attack/defense structure to a challenge-based one. Second, the competition lasted for a whole week, with hopes of providing more classroom time to the various teams. Third, the iCTF was actually composed of two separate competitions, one dedicated to high school teams and one dedicated to undergraduate students. Teams were vetted by hand and were required to have an academic advisor, going back what was done in the early versions of the iCTF.
Now that the 2023 iCTF is in the history books, the organizers are looking to 2024, at ways to improve the competition, and at the opportunity for increased high school involvement. Check out this article from the Daily Nexus, UCSB's student-run newspaper, for some hints about possibilities for the next iCTF.
Photos of the champion teams will be posted here after Winter Break.