“Attackers solely need to be proper as soon as. You, as a defender, need to be proper 100% of the time.”
—Cybersecurity Knowledgeable Jim Risler
It’s a widely known fashionable trope in films and TV exhibits. A lone determine, head coated, hunches over a keyboard within the darkness. Instantly you’re taking a look at a hacker doing nefarious issues.
However hacking isn’t at all times fictional. Knowledge breaches are on the rise, costing companies tens of millions. From 2021 to 2023, there was a 72% enhance in knowledge breaches, with electronic mail being the most typical vector for malware. An information breach is projected to value a median of $4.88 million in 2024. It’s extra necessary than ever for corporations to upskill their networking groups—and it’s an open job marketplace for these trying to study cybersecurity.
I spoke with the content material creators of the brand new Seize the Flag challenges inside Cisco U.—Jim Risler, Cisco Studying Product Supervisor, overseeing safety course improvement, and Paul Ostrowski, Cisco Technical Schooling Content material Developer—to get perception into the competitors and why it’s so necessary for anybody fascinated about a cybersecurity profession.
What’s a Seize the Flag cybersecurity problem?
First, what does Seize the Flag (CTF) imply? Principally, it’s a sport by which there’s a defensive and an offensive workforce competing to win a flag or flags. It might be a sporting occasion, for kids or adults. On this context, Seize the Flag is a cybersecurity problem.
Seize the Flag has lengthy been used within the tech group for individuals to observe their cybersecurity abilities. The world’s greatest occasion is Def Con CTF, happening in Las Vegas yearly. Seize the Flag challenges are additionally utilized by large companies and universities to coach individuals in cybersecurity.
It’s normally a contest between groups: the offense (purple workforce) and the protection (blue workforce); or, if either side are labored concurrently, a purple workforce. It might be in individual, on-line, on a multi-person workforce, or with particular person opponents.
How can I take part in a Cisco U. Seize the Flag problem?
You may be wherever on this planet to take part within the Cisco U. Seize the Flag on-line challenges. Participation is particular person. Right here’s the way to get began.
Passing one CTF problem plus the Cisco Networking Academy course will earn you the Cisco Certificates in Moral Hacking.
How does a Cisco U. Seize the Flag problem work?
Each problem will work somewhat in a different way. The primary challenges (working via 2/11/2025) don’t separate you into blue or purple groups. “In Cisco U. the 2 CTFs now we have now are extra blue workforce since you’re doing investigation response, and testing your skills to detect assaults,” notes Ostrowski. “You’re functioning as an investigator in each missions.”
Now that Cisco U. has a Challenges characteristic contained in the platform, there will likely be new Seize the Flag on-line cybersecurity challenges each quarter. Anticipate a wide range of CTFs, together with purple team-focused ones, the place you infiltrate a community and expose its vulnerabilities.
Every problem consists of a lot of steps- at present 11 steps– you will need to full one after the other to cross. Step one guides you thru organising your lab atmosphere, which you’ll want for the rest of the problem.
What rating do you have to cross a Cisco U. CTF problem?
Is there a minimal rating you have to cross? In no way.
“The unique thought was to make this rating out of 100, however now it’s simply cross or fail,” notes Ostrowski. “So in case you get to Step 11 and accurately reply it, you’ve handed.”
Hints can be found all through. You’ll get factors taken away in case you use a touch, but it surely’s structured so that you’ll cross no matter whether or not you reply all the pieces accurately.
“There’s an outdated expertise factor geeks like myself say,” says Risler. “RTFM. Learn the Pleasant handbook. It’s all in there for you.” His hints will let you know the place to look in case you missed a clue.
Do you want extra coaching previous to taking the Cisco Networking Academy course?
“Technically you don’t want extra coaching, however you need to perceive networking,” Risler advises. “Cisco Networking Academy has some fundamentals of networking programs to present you a very good basis.”
Constructing a robust basis in networking is a crucialHe notes that as an teacher at a college, he sees school college students who lack this basis leaping into extra complicated cybersecurity coaching anyway after which struggling to catch up. “Their professors aren’t geeks like me, they…simply inform the children to review stuff of their guide and the subsequent factor …the college students are like, ‘Why is IP addressing necessary?’ If you don’t perceive that, you don’t perceive networking.” And you gained’t achieve success in cybersecurity.
Who ought to do Cisco U. Seize the Flag on-line?
Anybody fascinated about cybersecurity ought to hop onto the CTF problem to each study and check abilities. “The target of CTF is to bridge the hole between entry-level and professionals in cybersecurity, offering hands-on studying with real-world information, abilities, and skills,” says Risler. “A whole lot of corporations say they’ve this hole. They could have booked cybersecurity schooling, however the applications don’t do labs or hands-on, or it’s all on a Home windows machine. In our CTF, they undergo the moral hacker course, and so they’re taught on a DNS (area title system)/lab atmosphere, after which that information and abilities are utilized in a close to real-world setting.”
What Cisco U. coaching ought to I take after Seize the Flag?
So that you’ve accomplished each CTF challenges in Cisco U. Congratulations! What do you do subsequent, apart from look ahead to our subsequent problem to do extra?
There are solely two paths to pursue in safety, in response to Risler. “I actually suppose we overcomplicate it,” he says. “There’s an engineering mindset: constructing the structure and securing the community. Or there’s defending the community, which is someone who appears to be like for threats on the community.”
If you happen to’re into defending the community, the subsequent areas you’ll be able to examine are:
Between Cisco U. and Cisco Networking Academy, you may get all of the schooling you want for any security-related profession. Cisco is a cybersecurity chief, with protecting merchandise like Cisco Umbrella and the intelligence middle, Talos, which analyzes 4 TB of menace knowledge on daily basis. “At Cisco we’re instructing you the way cyberattacks are profitable,” says Risler. “You’re studying how they’re in a position to get a foothold in someplace after which why did the goal assault work? Why did the malware assault on the British healthcare system work? How may you defend in opposition to that?” Cisco is uniquely positioned to take a look at cyberattacks from a purple perspective, seeing what’s coming subsequent and stopping what’s coming now—and cross all that information onto learners.
Risler recommends:
The Sandworm by Andy Greenberg. The true story of essentially the most devastating act of cyberwarfare in historical past and the determined hunt to establish and monitor the elite Russian brokers behind it. It’s a terrific learn for anybody fascinated about cybersecurity and in addition a incredible guide membership selection.
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