Past Event

Cyseck–Hierro CTF

Event Report & Highlights

Organised with CYSECK · Hosted online on the HierroShield CTF Platform

60+
Participants
5
Hours
6
Challenges
Jeopardy
Format

Event Overview

Date & Time 14 August · 11:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Structure 1 Round · Progressive Difficulty
Mode Online · HierroShield CTF Platform
Domains Crypto, Web, Forensics, Stego, Malware

About the Competition

The Cyseck–Hierro CTF was conducted as a fast-paced, online Jeopardy-style Capture The Flag competition on the HierroShield CTF Platform, designed to deliver a hands-on cybersecurity experience. Over the span of 5 hours, 60+ participants engaged with multi-domain challenges mapped to real-world scenarios.

Challenge Format

  • Jeopardy-style CTF with time-based, decaying scoring
  • Single round containing 6 challenges of increasing difficulty
  • Real-time leaderboard to track rankings and engagement
  • Progressive difficulty from Beginner → Intermediate → Advanced → Expert

Domains Covered

The competition evaluated skills across multiple key cybersecurity domains:

  • Digital Forensics
  • Steganography
  • Malware Analysis & Basic Reverse Engineering
  • Web Exploitation
  • Cipher & Cryptography Challenges
Web Exploitation
Cryptography
Digital Forensics
Malware Peek & Reverse Engineering
Steganography

Outcomes & Learnings

The Cyseck–Hierro CTF emerged as an effective learning experience, providing participants with hands-on exposure to realistic cybersecurity scenarios. Beginner and intermediate challenges such as the Cipher Text Challenge and Steganography tasks saw high solve counts, while advanced challenges like Doppler Malware and USB Forensic Recovery remained unsolved, pushing the upper bound of difficulty.

Key Takeaways

  • Balanced mix of solvable beginner tasks and demanding advanced challenges.
  • Participants strengthened skills in cryptography, web security, steganography, malware analysis, and forensics.
  • Time-based scoring and a live leaderboard reinforced strategic thinking and time management.
  • The event boosted participants’ confidence and readiness for real-world cybersecurity roles.

Beyond technical depth, the competition emphasized soft skills such as persistence, analytical reasoning, decision-making under pressure, and collaborative thinking—core capabilities for modern security teams.

Event Gallery

Add Cyseck–Hierro CTF snapshots here

Cyseck–Hierro CTF overview slide
Leaderboard view during Cyseck–Hierro CTF
Participants solving challenges
Challenge statistics and category breakdown