CTF for education

TL;DR

This paper analyzes various categories of Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions and discusses how combining different formats can enhance cybersecurity education and learning outcomes.

Contribution

It categorizes CTF types, compares their educational benefits, and advocates for combining formats to improve cybersecurity training.

Findings

Combining all four CTF types enhances cybersecurity knowledge.

Different CTF formats have unique learning objectives and accessibility features.

A comprehensive approach benefits cybersecurity education.

Abstract

In this paper, we take a close look at how CTF can be used in cybersecurity education. We divide the CTF competitions into four different categories, which are attack-based CTFs, defense-based CTFs, jeopardy CTFs and gamified and wargames CTFs. We start our analysis by summarizing the main characteristics of different CTF types. We then compare them with each other in both learning objectives and other aspects like accessibility. We conclude that combining all four CTF formats can help participants build one's cybersecurity knowledge. By doing that, we hope that our findings will provide some useful insights for future CTF educators.