When you think of students playing capture the flag, a first thought is of them running around a field playing tag and trying to grab a physical flag from their opponent’s side. What if we were to tell you that this capture the flag was held online and was training the next generation of cyber security professionals? Well, this is the case for the AFCEA Hawaii Student Capture the Flag (CTF) event that was held from Oct 20th-Nov 3rd 2022 by Pacific Technologies and Solutions. So what did this CTF look like? It was modeled to look like a videogame, so it was fun & engaging for the students. The preliminary round was held in October virtually over 3 days and over 14 schools across Hawai’i participated in online challenges to earn points and battle for a spot at the in-person final round. First, they were all given a set of rules, like don’t hack the other teams or the site. Then they were taught how to VPN to a site where there was a jeopardy-style board with cyber tasks, and all the answers had to be hashed (for example, if the answer was the letter q, then the hash would be: 7694f4a66316e53c8cdd9d9954bd611d The topics included: Trivia Recon Analysis Decoding Exploit OSINT And students were taught how to use advanced toolsets including Kali Linux, Arkime, Metasploit, Cyber Chef, Staghide, Zip2John, and a lot of Googling. The event was hosted on a multipurpose cyber range called the COBRA DEN (Distributed Exercise Network) which is powered by a company called Rangeforce. They build cyber readiness with hands-on skills development and entirely emulated, realistic virtual environments. “This is a gamechanger!” proclaimed user: kkuyami, a teacher at Kalaheo High school on the windward side of Oahu, during the connectivity test. The event communications were held on “Discord” which allowed for messaging, voice & video chats, and screen sharing. There were channels in the server for announcements, general chat, technical assistance, and solutions walkthrough at the end. Preliminary Round In the virtual preliminary round, for 60 hours, these students in their teams (along with a coach/mentor assisting) tried to earn as many points as possible because the top 5 teams (of 5) would move onto the finals, held live at the TechNet Indo Pacific conference at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki. Many of these teams also participate in Cyber Patriot (a national youth cyber education program created in the United States to help direct students toward careers in cybersecurity or another STEM discipline. The program was created by the Air Force Association). Schools registered: Aiea HS Hanalani Schools Kaiser HS Kalaheo HS Kapolei HS Mckinley HS Mid Pacific Molokai HS Nanakuli High & Intermediate Seabury Hall Waialua High & Intermediate Waimea HS JROTC Waipahu HS Washington MS It came close, but the top 5 schools that went onto the final round were: 1. McKinley High School (Oahu-Public) 2. Hanalani School (Oahu-Private) 3. Seabury Hall (Maui-Private) 4. Mid Pacific Institute (Oahu-Private) 5. Nanakuli High School (Oahu-Public)