SANS Institute
Completing a Series of Red-Team / Blue-Team CTF challenges
Each year the SANS Institute - the internationally renowned cyber-security training and knowledge-sharing organisation - organises a capture-the-flag (CTF) competition in which security experts are invited to complete a series of red-team (i.e. simulated computer hacking) and blue-team (i.e. defending against attack) challenges, to develop and demonstrate their understanding of cyber-security risks.
The 2018 challenge dubbed KringleCon included a virtual conference with content from SANS team members and collaborators, along with 12 CTF challenges of varying difficulties. Mike joined KringleCon for some post-Christmas entertainment and to update his practical knowledge of cyber threats, completing ten and a half out of the twelve challenges unaided and within the competition time limits. He completed the final challenges with a bit of help from other participants after the deadline. You can read about the challenges (which are still open for you to try if you're interested) here and Mike's notes on completing the challenges on the HHC 2018 tab here.
SANS reported that out of 17,460 participants in the challenge, around 730 made it as far as question 10, with around 650 completing the entire challenge.