Every year the Advanced Research Center's vulnerability research team hosts a capture the flag (CTF) competition, a type of team-based hacking challenge. Our theme this year is a nuclear-war devastated U.S. in the near future, where the only hospitable areas remaining are on the east (new England area) and west (California area) coasts. The coasts are now in conflict over the remaining infrastructure and resources, with skirmishes being waged in cyberspace. Teams participating in the competition select which coast they want to rep and their points will contribute to that side's total, with a winner of the civil war being declared in addition to the winning teams at the conclusion.

Grand Prize: Registration to one SANS course of the winners choosing, Limited to one member from the winning team.

Placement Prize: Challenge coin, for registered members of the top 5 scoring teams. Team sizes limited to 4 registered members.