Cascade STEAM Breach is a Community Project featuring a cybersecurity shared learning experience in a game of Capture the Flag! The offensive Red Team takes on the defensive Blue Team in an epic battle of planting, detecting, and resolving cybersecurity exploits in a controlled environment. Participants share their strategies for attacking and defending as a learning exercise, which helps to evolve further rounds of play with more difficult challenges.

Breach is planned for the 4th Sunday of the month from 1pm-5pm at the Bellingham Makerspace. Check our Community Calendar, Meetup Page, and/or our Community Hub (Discord) for scheduled events. Join our Community Hub (Discord) in the breach and cybersecurity channels for event and team discussion to participate.

Contact breach@cascadesteam.org to discuss details regarding the Cascade STEAM Breach Community Project.

How to Play

Teams are formed of 3-5 players. At each event, teams are matched in a head-to-head battle consisting of two rounds. Each team plays a round as the Red Team (offense) and as the Blue Team (defense). The winner is the team with the most Challenge Flag Points after both rounds.

Points are won by either (1) creating an undetected Challenge Flag (exploit) by the Red Team, or (2) detecting and resolving Challenge Flags (exploits) by the Blue Team.

Each round consists of five phases: Prepare, Resolve, Attack, Victory, and Collaborate.

  1. Prepare Phase: The Red Team prepares five Challenge Flags (exploits) prior to the event.
  2. Resolve Phase: The Blue Team attempts to detect and resolve all five Challenge Flags created by the Red Team. If the Blue Team is not successful, then the Attack Phase begins.
  3. Attack Phase: The Red Team attacks Challenge Flags (known exploits) and adds new Challenge Flags (new exploits), forcing the Blue Team to defend by detecting and resolving each Challenge Flag.
  4. Victory Phase: The team with the most Challenge Flag points at the end of the Attack Phase is the victor.
  5. Collaborate Phase: The round ends with sharing of all Challenge Flags details by the Red Team and strategies for detection and resolution by the Blue Team.