Cybersecurity Events Calendar

Upcoming Cybersec competitions:

NCCDC: National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

Started in 2004, the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition was established with the aim of providing a template for cyber security organizations at the collegiate level as well as provide infrastructure for competitions between schools with cyber security organizations. Schools sign up for the annual competitions by first joining competition in the geographic region in which they are located. Competition then proceeds from qualifiers, to regional competition, to national competition.

Website: https://www.nationalccdc.org/

Approximate Annual Date: Jan-April

PWN2OWN

Pwn2Own is a hacking contest presented annually at the CanSecWest Conference. The contests challenge cyber security professionals to find flaws and exploit consumer software and devices. $100,000’s in prizes are available annually for contest winners.

Website: https://www.secwest.net/

Approximate Annual Date: March

PITCOCTF

PicoCTF is a cyber security competition available to middle and high school students. The event is put on by Carnegie Mellon University, and places teams into an interactive environment and storyline where they must hack, decrypt, reverse engineer, and break different sandbox elements. The competition is the largest cyber security competition available to middle and high schoolers.

Website: https://picoctf.org/

Approximate Annual Date: March - April

U.S. Cyber Challenge

The US Cyber Challenge is presented by the Center for Internet Security, and offers a number of cyber security competitions. Competitions occur online and through the number of summer camps hosted by the USCC organization.

Website: https://www.uscyberchallenge.org/

Approximate Annual Date: August

DEF CON 

Probably the largest cyber security conference, DEF CON presents a wide range of contents that often change from year to year. Common competitions include hacking, lockpicking, scavenger hunts, and the highly prestigious capture the flag contest. The conference takes place in Las Vegas annually.

Website: https://defcon.org/

Approximate Annual Date: August

Panoply

Panoply is a network assessment and network defense competition put on by the University of Texas at San Antonio. The timed event is put on at large conferences every year. In the competition, teams accumulate points through controlling and operating critical network resources such as SMTP, DNS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SSH. Throughout the competition, additional resources are added to the common pool that both teams are fighting over, forcing teams to choose between attempting to control new resources or defend existing resources.

Website: https://cyberpanoply.com/

Approximate Annual Date: Fall Time

NCL: National Cyber League

The National Cyber League was created in 2011 as a educational and recruiting tool. Every “game” that cyber security students and professionals participate in is built around learning objectives. And for those seeking work, a “scouting report” can give future employers a glimpse of participant technical chops, time management, and ability to deal with pressure. Games are hosted in the “NCL Stadium” a cloud-based environment for competitions throughout an annual “season.”

Website: https://nationalcyberleague.org/

Approximate Annual Date: Year-Round

CyberPatriot 

CyberPatriot is a program established for the K-12 education of students in cyber security by the Air Force Association. There are three branches of the program, including the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, AFA CyberCamps, and Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative. The Cyber Defense Competition starts at the state and then regional level. Top competitors are then given an all-expense paid trip to the national finals in Baltimore, Maryland. At nationals, participants compete for national recognition and scholarship money.

Website: https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/

Approximate Annual Date: Year-Round

Mitre Cyber Academy

Mitre presents it’s annual STEM Capture the Flag challenge that is open to both current students and professionals. While current professionals may compete in the competition for education and training purposes, only eligible high school and college teams will be able to obtain winning prizes, scholarships, and internships. A wide range of other competitions are presented throughout the year by Mitre.

Website: https://mitrecyberacademy.org/competitions/

Approximate Annual Date: Year-Round

Women in Cyber Security (WiCyS) Conference

WiCyS started in 2013 by Dr. Ambareen Siraj through a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Tennessee Tech University. It has grown into an organization representing a leading alliance between trailblazers from academia, government, and industry.

Website: https://www.wicys.org/

National Initiative For Cybersecurity Education (NICE)

The NICE Conference is the annual convening of community members and thought leaders from education, government, industry, and non-profits to explore ways of developing a skilled cybersecurity workforce ready to meet the challenges of the future. This event provides an opportunity to share best practices from around the world and across sectors in order to build the workforce we need to confront cybersecurity risks today and in years to come.

Website: https://niceconference.org/