Cisco successfully hosted a Secure Access Capture the Flag (CTF) challenge designed to put participants' technical expertise to the test. 

This wasn’t a standard walkthrough. It was a series of complex, architecturally focused scenarios requiring participants' knowledge and rapid security analysis.

The event was built for anyone who wanted to stress-test their understanding of the role of secure access in the AI era. Having a hands-on experience on what policies, threat vectors, and mitigation strategies were within their current stack.

What is Capture the Flag?

Capture the Flag is a gamified way to solve real lab challenges and gain hands-on experience with Cisco technologies, including enterprise networking, security, data center, Meraki, collaboration, and more.

Challenge focus areas

Architecture analysis: Debugging complex access flows and identifying misconfigurations.

Threat mitigation: Executing secure access policies to neutralise simulated lateral movement and unauthorised access attempts.

Policy optimisation: Balancing zero-trust constraints with operational performance.  

Why participate

Hands-on experience: Work through complex security challenges in a safe, simulated environment.
Skill development: Gain practical experience with Secure Access configurations and threat detection.
Networking: Connect with peers and share strategies in a collaborative, competitive setting.