Cyber Cup Challenge

Join the 8th Annual Cyber Cup Challenge at the National Cyber Summit 

Compete. Learn. Win Prizes. 

Hosted by Corelight

The 8th Annual Cyber Cup Challenge will take place on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, Alabama, as part of the 2026 National Cyber Summit. 

This year’s competition is hosted by Corelight and will be held prior to the official Summit kickoff and outside the exhibit hall, allowing participants to fully enjoy both the competition and the Summit experience. 

The Cyber Cup Challenge is a Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competition designed to test participants' cybersecurity knowledge and technical skills through realistic, security-focused scenarios. 
 

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Who Can Participate?

Participation is open to everyone. Summit registration is not required. 

Registration Fee: $50 per person

Your registration includes: 

• Beverages throughout the day
• Lunch
• Admission to the NCS exhibit hall during all open hours

Participants under the age of 18 must have a parent or legal guardian present on-site to provide consent. Prize winners must be present at the conclusion of the competition to receive awards. 
 

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Registration Deadline

September 15, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. CST. 
 

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Registration Categories

Participants may compete in one of two divisions: 

Academic Category

Registration Fee: $50 per person

Eligibility requirements:

• Students must register with their college (.edu) or high school email address
• Each team can have up to 4 members
• All members of the Academic team must be enrolled in high school or college as of Fall 2026 Semester
• Team members can be from different schools or universities
• If under the age of 18, your parent/guardian must be present the day of the competition.
   

Register as an Academic Individual
 
Register AN Academic Team

Academic Challenge Overview
Participants in the Academic category will pivot from Suricata alerts to Zeek® evidence, finding indicators of C2 beaconing, lateral movement, and data exfiltration along the way.

Plus, you’ll see how valuable our HTTP, DNS, SSL, and x509 logs (and more) are for common incident response and threat-hunting tasks.
 

Professional Category

Registration Fee: $50 per person

• Each team can have up to 4 members
   

Register as Professional individual

Register a Professional team

Professional Challenge Overview
Participants in the Professional category will compete head-to-head on dozens of security challenges using Zeek data in Crowdstrike.

We’ve designed the questions in these scenarios to lead you through typical analyst processes, making them interesting to current practitioners while also approachable to folks who want to break into or advance in the security industry.
 

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Schedule

Tuesday, September 22, 2026 | Saturn Ballroom

7:30 - 8:00 a.m.	Team Check-In
8:00 - 8:30 a.m.	Challenge Overview and Rules of the Road Presented by Corelight
8:30 a.m.	Professional Teams Cyber Cup Challenge Officially Kicks Off
8:30 - 9:00 a.m.	Academic Teams Cyber Cup Challenge Enrichment Content
9:00 a.m.	Academic Teams Cyber Cup Challenge Officially Kicks Off
12:00 - 1:30 p.m.	Lunch break (both game boards paused)
5:00 p.m.	Cyber Cup Challenge Ends

 

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Awards and Prizes

Awards will be presented to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place teams in both the Academic and Professional categories. 

In addition, the 1st place team in each category will receive a complimentary Full Summit Pass to the National Cyber Summit. 

This year’s Cyber Cup Challenge should be a good opportunity to test your skills and have fun!