“Attackers solely must be proper as soon as. You, as a defender, must be proper 100% of the time.”
—Cybersecurity Professional Jim Risler
It’s a well known fashionable trope in films and TV exhibits. A lone determine, head coated, hunches over a keyboard within the darkness. Instantly you’re a hacker doing nefarious issues.
However hacking isn’t all the time fictional. Knowledge breaches are on the rise, costing companies thousands and thousands. From 2021 to 2023, there was a 72% improve in knowledge breaches, with electronic mail being the commonest vector for malware. An information breach is projected to value a mean 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 growth, and Paul Ostrowski, Cisco Technical Schooling Content material Developer—to get perception into the competitors and why it’s so necessary for anybody keen on a cybersecurity profession.
What’s a Seize the Flag cybersecurity problem?
First, what does Seize the Flag (CTF) imply? Principally, it’s a recreation wherein there’s a defensive and an offensive staff competing to win a flag or flags. It could possibly 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 follow their cybersecurity abilities. The world’s greatest occasion is Def Con CTF, going down in Las Vegas yearly. Seize the Flag challenges are additionally utilized by massive firms and universities to coach individuals in cybersecurity.
It’s normally a contest between groups: the offense (purple staff) and the protection (blue staff); or, if either side are labored concurrently, a purple staff. It could possibly be in individual, on-line, on a multi-person staff, or with particular person rivals.
How can I take part in a Cisco U. Seize the Flag problem?
You will be wherever on the earth to take part within the Cisco U. Seize the Flag on-line challenges. Participation is particular person. Right here’s how one can 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 just a little in a different way. The primary challenges (operating 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 staff since you’re doing investigation response, and testing your talents to detect assaults,” notes Ostrowski. “You’re functioning as an investigator in each missions.”
Now that Cisco U. has a Challenges function contained in the platform, there shall be new Seize the Flag on-line cybersecurity challenges each quarter. Count on quite a lot of CTFs, together with purple team-focused ones, the place you infiltrate a community and expose its vulnerabilities.
Every problem consists of plenty of steps- at present 11 steps– you could full one after the other to go. Step one guides you thru organising your lab surroundings, which you’ll want for the rest of the problem.
What rating do you have to go a Cisco U. CTF problem?
Is there a minimal rating you have to go? In no way.
“The unique thought was to make this rating out of 100, however now it’s simply go or fail,” notes Ostrowski. “So if you happen to get to Step 11 and appropriately reply it, you’ve handed.”
Hints can be found all through. You’ll get factors taken away if you happen to use a touch, nevertheless it’s structured so that you’ll go no matter whether or not you reply every thing appropriately.
“There’s an previous know-how factor geeks like myself say,” says Risler. “RTFM. Learn the Pleasant guide. It’s all in there for you.” His hints will inform you the place to look if you happen to missed a clue.
Do you want further coaching previous to taking the Cisco Networking Academy course?
“Technically you don’t want further coaching, however it is best to perceive networking,” Risler advises. “Cisco Networking Academy has some fundamentals of networking programs to provide you a superb basis.”
Constructing a powerful basis in networking is a crucialHe notes that as an teacher at a college, he sees faculty 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 youngsters to check stuff of their e-book and the following factor …the college students are like, ‘Why is IP addressing necessary?’ If you don’t perceive that, you don’t perceive networking.” And you received’t achieve success in cybersecurity.
Who ought to do Cisco U. Seize the Flag on-line?
Anybody keen on 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 execs in cybersecurity, offering hands-on studying with real-world data, abilities, and talents,” says Risler. “Plenty of corporations say they’ve this hole. They may have booked cybersecurity training, 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, they usually’re taught on a DNS (area title system)/lab surroundings, after which that data 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 completed each CTF challenges in Cisco U. Congratulations! What do you do subsequent, moreover watch for our subsequent problem to do extra?
There are solely two paths to pursue in safety, in keeping with Risler. “I actually assume 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 any person who appears to be like for threats on the community.”
In the event you’re into defending the community, the following areas you’ll be able to examine are:
Between Cisco U. and Cisco Networking Academy, you may get all of the training you want for any security-related profession. Cisco is a cybersecurity chief, with protecting merchandise like Cisco Umbrella and the intelligence heart, Talos, which analyzes 4 TB of risk knowledge day by day. “At Cisco we’re instructing you the way cyberattacks are profitable,” says Risler. “You’re studying how they’re capable of 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 might you defend in opposition to that?” Cisco is uniquely positioned to have a look at cyberattacks from a purple perspective, seeing what’s coming subsequent and stopping what’s coming now—and go all that data 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 determine and monitor the elite Russian brokers behind it. It’s an ideal learn for anybody keen on cybersecurity and in addition a incredible e-book membership alternative.
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