Capture the (red) flag: How hacking contests enhance China’s cyber capabilities
China set about creating its CTF ecosystem in 2018 when the Central Cyberspace Administration of China and Ministry of Public Security issued the Notice on Regulating the Promotion of Cybersecurity Competitions. The notice encouraged ministries for cybersecurity, education, information technology, and public security to promote cybersecurity competitions. While our report examines their work to establish these competitions, this dashboard provides a visually accessible digest of China’s recurring competitions.
The China CTF Competition Tracker presents data on 54 annually recurring hacking competitions in China. Each placard includes competition names in English and Mandarin, as well as logos of government sponsors of the competition. Users can click on each placard to reveal average number of annual participants, years of operations, hosts in both English and Mandarin, and links to competition write-ups from participants.
Compiled by
Eugenio Benincasa
Senior Researcher, Cyberdefense Project, Risk and Resilience Team
Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich
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