How to Leverage Hacking Competitions as an Educational and Recruitment Tool

One of the most-heard complaints from security experts is that often they find their work repetitive ("The CFO's laptop has been compromised... again!"), which results in the desire of trying something "new", meaning "leave for another company." Another common complaint is that the work is very compartmentalized, and there are few occasions in which the various security specialists can enjoy working as a team. One activity that can help build a team while improving the security skills of the people involved is participating in Capture the Flag (CTF) hacking competitions. In 2003 at the University of California at Santa Barbara, one of the world's largest attack-defense CTF competitions began and has grown year-after-year, pushing the limits of the players and providing opportunities for better learning. In addition, hacking competitions are a great opportunity for recruiting new talent: CTF participants are highly skilled, well-motivated, and hard-working, which are great traits for a future employee.