The winners highlight Global Cybersecurity Talent and Advanced Ethical Hacking Skills.
Kaspersky has officially revealed the winners of the Security Analyst Summit (SAS) Capture the Flag (CTF) 2025 competition, celebrating some of the world’s most skilled cybersecurity experts and ethical hackers. The C4T BuT S4D team from Russia secured the top position following a highly competitive final round held in Khao Lak, Thailand, on October 25-26. More than a dozen teams competed in the finals, which featured both professional CTF players and outstanding participants from academic institutions and corporate cybersecurity teams. A total prize pool of US$18,000 was awarded to the winning teams.
The SAS CTF 2025 finals brought together the champions of two major qualification events: the SAS CTF global online qualifiers and the regional Kaspersky{CTF} competitions held earlier this year. Together, these tournaments attracted over 2,500 teams from around the world, with 13 finalists representing regions including Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, and Latin America. The event continues to play a key role in advancing cybersecurity education, hands-on skills development, and international collaboration.
This year’s competition featured a dynamic attack-defense format, widely recognized as one of the most demanding formats in Capture the Flag tournaments. Each team was responsible for protecting their own vulnerable infrastructure while simultaneously identifying and exploiting weaknesses in competing teams’ systems. Their final score depended not only on offensive performance, but also on their Service Level Agreement (SLA) score, which demonstrated how effectively they maintained uptime and system stability under pressure—an essential real-world cyber defense skill.
The C4T BuT S4D team claimed the $10,000 grand prize, while the second-place team, SKSD of Indonesia, received $5,000, and the third-place dtl team from Russia was awarded $3,000. Speaking after their victory, team member Artem Mikheev praised the high level of competition and emphasized the value of learning from new strategies and techniques demonstrated throughout the event.
Reflecting on the significance of the tournament, Igor Kuznetsov, Director of Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), noted that SAS CTF 2025 represented an important step in strengthening the global cybersecurity community. He highlighted the participation of professionals, students, and business sector teams as a meaningful example of how collaboration and knowledge-sharing are driving progress in cyber defense and digital resilience.
Finalists also attended the prestigious Security Analyst Summit 2025, gaining access to exclusive research presentations, expert discussions, and networking opportunities with global cybersecurity leaders. Since its launch in 2009, SAS has been recognized as one of the cybersecurity industry’s most influential events. This year’s conference placed special emphasis on the rapidly evolving field of automotive cybersecurity, acknowledging its growing importance in today’s connected technology landscape.
