The Standoff: Attackers and defenders to face off in digital metropolis security challenge

The upcoming HITB+ CyberWeek, which will take place at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi on October 12–17, 2019, will see hackers and cybersecurity practitioners participate in many CTF-style competitions, but none as exciting as The Standoff.

What is it?

The Standoff is a cyberbattle that mimics the real-life arms race between hackers that attack and security specialists that defend critical infrastructure. The participating blue and red teams battle it out on an accurate model of the modern city.

Developed by cybersecurity experts at Positive Technologies, a company that specializes in protection of critical IT systems, this mock city models the digital systems of a full-fledged metropolis with infrastructure including traffic systems, electrical plants, and transportation, rounded out with ICS/SCADA equipment.

“The contest infrastructure is built using real equipment and the latest industry-specific technologies,” Michael Levin, Deputy Director of Expert Security Center at Positive Technologies, told Help Net Security.

“We know what to use because we conduct lots of penetration testing projects, so we understand what the real problems in different industries are and how vulnerabilities could be exploited. This allows us to implement a variety of attack vectors to make the cyberbattle even more exciting and unpredictable.”

Unlike regular CTF, where participants have a minimal toolkit and set of goals, in The Standoff attackers only have a high-level description of the task that could be solved in multiple ways.

“Another distinction from the CTF is that capture the flag contests are usually attack-centered, while The Standoff features several groups of participants. We have defenders, SOCs, security tools vendors, spectators. All of them are communicating and affecting each other during the battle,” he added.

“Also, every event that occurs during the cyberbattle has its resemblance in our mock town. The model works on real hardware with no emulation at all.”