Supported by Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) and KasperskyAcademy, the new CTF competition attracted a total of1600 expert teams from the academic and corporate worlds
Held for the first time on August 30–31, 2025, the online international cybersecurity competition Kaspersky {CTF} has determined five winning cybersecurity teams from around the world. Ganesh from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, Pinely, the Netherlands, Solid All from SolidGroup, Russia, PwnSec, the UAE, and Odin from ENKI WhiteHat, South Koreabecame the leaders of the jeopardy-style contest in their regional stages and are now going to test their skills at a new level at SAS CTF 2025 on-site finals.
Supported by Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT) and KasperskyAcademy, the new CTF competition attracted a total of 1600 expert teams from the academic and corporate worlds. With 90 participating countries overall, India, Russi,a and Brazil became TOP3 in terms of the number of registrations.
Reflecting Kaspersky’s commitment to fostering the community through hands-on education, these new competitionsoffered an effective platform for fresh minds to test their skills, learn from real-world challenges and connect with industry experts. Thestrong interest from both academia and industry showed just how important it is to support and invest into such events.”
– Evgeniya Russkikh, Head of Academic Affairs at Kaspersky
As part of the 24-hour contest, 1110 academic and 490 corporate teams from around the globe tackled a series of advanced tasks across reverse engineering, cryptography, binary exploitation, web security, and forensics. Designed by Kaspersky’s experts, the challenges reflected real-world threat scenarios and demanded both technical precision and creative problem-solving. The teams have shown high preparedness for the competition: all of the 25 tasks in total were solved successfully, with the most sophisticated challenges tackled at least two-five times. The AI-topic turned out to be the most attractive for participants, though one of this category’s tasks was solved by only five teams. The team to capture most of the flags, 24 out of 25, was Odin from ENKI WhiteHat, South Korea.
“The active interest in this contest from both academic and business communitiesindicates that cybersecurity culture is on the rise and is actively developing globally.”
-Leonid Bezvershenko, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky’s GReAT
The top five teams are now set to compete for an $18,000 prize pool with eight winning teams from the SAS CTF 2025 qualifiers at the final stage at the Security Analyst Summit in Khao Lak, Thailand, from October 25-28.
Commenting on the contest, the captain of the Odin team (the winners from Asia and the Oceania region), noted: “All the challenges across categories were enjoyable, and I especially liked the reverse engineering ones. I’m even more delighted that we managed to secure not only the top spot in Asia but also the overall first place by a wide margin.”
“The new competition was a reminder of how much talent is out there,” said Leonid Bezvershenko, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky’s GReAT. “The active interest in this contest from both academic and business communities indicates that cybersecurity culture is on the rise and is actively developing globally. During the competition, we saw fresh thinking, bold strategies and a real passion for solving tough problems. That’s exactly what the cybersecurity world needs to stay ahead of the constantly evolving threats.”
“Held for the first time, Kaspersky {CTF} became a thrilling showcase of global cybersecurity talent with students and young professionals taking center stage. Reflecting Kaspersky’s commitment to fostering the community through hands-on education, these new competitions offered an effective platform for fresh minds to test their skills, learn from real-world challenges and connect with industry experts. The strong interest from both academia and industry showed just how important it is to support and invest into such events,” said Evgeniya Russkikh, Head of Academic Affairs at Kaspersky.
The final round at SAS CTF 2025 will be held in an even more dynamic Attack-Defense format and feature new challenges inspired by emerging threat vectors. The participants will not only compete for the prize, but will also take the opportunity to meet an international community of industry-leading security experts, share knowledge and explore current trends and the market.
