2021 Federal Puzzle Challenge
- Who
- All Federal government employees and contractors with a “.gov” or “.mil” email address.
- Cost
- Free to participate
- Purpose
- Build technical skills for cyber incident response and collaborate with others in the field to expand your network within the cybersecurity community.
- Skill level
- This event is designed for entry level through advanced cybersecurity professionals. The puzzles are in escalating difficulty.
- Participation
- Teams will consist of 1 - 10 people. Participants are welcome to form their own teams. The Cyber Fire team will open a public Mattermost channel (similar to Slack) for participants to coordinate their teams.
- Requirements
- Participants will need a laptop, internet connection, and modern web browser (no older than Chrome 74, Firefox 66, Safari 12, or Edge 18). Participants will not be able to use Internet Explorer.
Details
The competition will kick off at 08:30 US/Mountain, and end at 11:30 US/Mountain on the next day. Participants will be able to choose when they want to log onto the DOE Cyber Fire puzzle server and work on the puzzles, any time while the puzzle server is open.
The DOE Cyber Fire team will use Mattermost as the primary communication during the event. Each participant will be sent an invite to set up an account prior to the event. Participants will be able to form private channels in Mattermost with their team members to communicate and collaborate before, during, and after the event.
Puzzles will cover the following technical areas:
- Malware analysis
- Network Archaeology and network forensics
- Host forensics
- Cyber incident coordination
Most puzzles will focus on traditional IT networks, with some specialized puzzles focusing on operational technology (OT) and ICS systems.
Participating in the Event
- Register for the event using the button on this page.
- Email Us with information about who you would like to be on your team.
- We will reply with a Team ID (or Team Token): you will need this when the event begins
- Visit your participant portal page (link in email) for all further information!
For questions about the event, email cyberfire@hq.doe.gov