[00:02.930 --> 00:07.330]  Remember the game you played as a kid, with flags hidden in opponents' terrain?
[00:07.330 --> 00:11.370]  Now, imagine the field or code, and the flags are secret data.
[00:11.370 --> 00:17.770]  Players exploit security flaws to capture the flags while at the same time defending their networks from opposing teams.
[00:17.770 --> 00:22.970]  These capture-the-flag, CTF events, are as diverse as the teams that play them.
[00:23.070 --> 00:27.690]  This is a global competitive community with thousands of players and global rankings.
[00:27.690 --> 00:32.650]  It's been a part of the origin story for a great many prominent security experts.
[00:32.730 --> 00:35.090]  So what do these hacking games look like?
[00:35.090 --> 00:40.890]  CTFs can be either in-person or online, and usually take place over a weekend or other short period.
[00:40.890 --> 00:45.490]  They often have a qualification round that determines who gets to participate in the finals.
[00:45.530 --> 00:50.410]  CTFs are sometimes themed around a specific domain, like space for HackASAT.
[00:50.410 --> 00:55.910]  But more commonly, they are not specialized and include a wide variety of different types of challenges.
[00:55.910 --> 00:58.010]  The most common types of CTFs include...
[00:58.970 --> 01:05.370]  Jeopardy CTFs, sometimes called Red Team CTFs, are named for their use of the classic game board as a scoreboard.
[01:05.370 --> 01:09.470]  These are more offensive-focused. Each team is given infrastructure to attack,
[01:09.470 --> 01:15.270]  and the number of successful attacks, the difficulty, or the speed at which they succeed, is factored into their score.
[01:15.270 --> 01:22.130]  Attack Defense, A-D, or Full Spectrum CTFs, which are closer to the original game you might have played as a kid.
[01:22.130 --> 01:28.790]  Each team has a server or set of servers to defend, and must attack other teams while also protecting their own infrastructure.
[01:28.790 --> 01:36.970]  King of the Hill-style CTFs are Full Spectrum CTFs, in which teams score points by gaining and maintaining control of individual systems.
[01:37.030 --> 01:42.150]  And finally, the less common Blue Team Exercises, which are primarily defensive events.
[01:42.150 --> 01:48.610]  Game organizers host an environment and often a professional team of attackers to test the participants' defensive skills.
[01:48.610 --> 01:51.550]  These are more common in the high school and collegiate level.
[01:52.230 --> 01:59.410]  Even though the goal of the CTFs are to find and exploit vulnerabilities in computer systems, fair play is essential.
[01:59.410 --> 02:05.010]  There are lots of ways to win, but to get the respect of your peers, you need to have good technical solutions.
[02:05.030 --> 02:11.930]  Nobody is impressed if you use a network flood to knock the scoreboard offline, and those kinds of shenanigans will get you shunned quickly.
[02:11.950 --> 02:19.550]  The best CTF players have built specialized tools, practiced within their domains, and include domain experts in many aspects of security.
[02:20.310 --> 02:21.630]  Why CTF?
[02:21.630 --> 02:29.810]  At their core, CTF challenges are a way for hackers to build community and demonstrate and hone their skills with other equally skilled people.
[02:29.810 --> 02:37.470]  Competitions are also a chance to experience the joy of learning about a new programming language or a new piece of technology hackers haven't used before.
[02:37.470 --> 02:44.710]  Capture the Flag challenges have also been used to help train cybersecurity teams and to get new hackers interested in security research.
[02:44.710 --> 02:50.790]  Some companies even use competitions similar to CTFs to recruit and vet potential candidates for employment.
[02:50.790 --> 02:57.410]  And CTFs have had real-world impact, with competitors finding actual security flaws in contest infrastructure.
[02:57.450 --> 03:03.050]  Their solutions, while not counting towards winning the game, are often implemented in a real-world context.
[03:03.370 --> 03:08.730]  With HackASAT, we have a CTF game designed to raise awareness about cybersecurity issues in space
[03:08.730 --> 03:14.770]  and help researchers develop specific skills and domain knowledge they'll need to help secure this new frontier.
[03:15.090 --> 03:22.010]  But as many of the players during our Quaz round found out, there are a lot of problems unique to the environments outside our atmosphere.
[03:22.010 --> 03:28.910]  To learn more about hacking in space, check out our Space Talk videos that explain some of the most interesting space-specific challenges.