Saturday, October 26th was not a typical weekend afternoon for the team at OCD Tech. Instead of mowing our lawns and watching college football, we teamed up to compete at a Capture the Flag event… and came out on top.

For those unfamiliar, Capture the Flag (CTF) from an IT security perspective is an event where teams use their penetration testing and problem-solving skills to work through problem sets. When a particular problem is solved, the team will submit the “flag” for points and move on to the next problem set. Teams had a total of 7 hours to accumulate the most points that they could.

OCD Tech sent 8 analysts to the competition and they were divided into 2 teams of 4. Respectively, the teams placed 1st and 3rd out of 14. The first-place team pulled away from the pack early on in the competition while the team placing third rallied right up until the end. Team 1 was represented by Michael Huffman, Huy Vu, and Greg Haapaoja. Team 2 was represented by Michael Hammond, Jill Kamperides, and Kate Upton.

We were glad to have our teams place but we were even more thankful for the opportunity to learn and to refine our skills. This event provided the perfect virtual playground for our analysts to practically apply the tools and knowledge they have to better service our current clients and as well as those who will trust us to provide IT security services in the future. We look forward to next year!