PORTAGE, MI – TribalHub brought together more than 60 tribal technology professionals for the National Tribal Cyber Challenge Oct. 20-21, featuring hands-on cybersecurity exercises and peer collaboration.
Hosted virtually through World Wide Technology’s (WWT) Cyber Range, the Capture the Flag event, Disarm Me: Hack, Decrypt, Disable, challenged participants to act as ethical hackers, identify vulnerabilities and work through realistic attack scenarios. More than half of the participants were from California tribes.
The event marked TribalHub’s first virtual Cyber Challenge after previously hosting in-person competitions at TribalNet and Cybersecurity Summit events.
“At WWT, we believe people learn security best by doing it,” said Daniel Hartnagel, Associate Business Development Manager at WWT. “The Cyber Range lets us put real tools and realistic scenarios in front of people in a safe environment, so participants build skills they can bring straight back to their teams.”
Participants competed individually while sharing insights and approaches throughout the event, with four competitors completing all 21 challenges. Angel Garcia of Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation took the top position in Division A with 385 points, while Ashish Pathuri of the Chickasaw Nation’s Global Gaming Solutions recorded the fastest overall completion time. Cristian Soriano of Valley View Casino & Hotel finished first in Division B with 215 points.
Garcia, a Sr. Security Analyst with Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, said the exercise provided an opportunity to work with a range of cybersecurity tools and consider attack and defense scenarios from different perspectives.
“What I found most rewarding was the opportunity to work with a variety of tools from the Kali Linux toolkit and gain a deeper appreciation for the tool’s capabilities,” Garcia said. “Connecting each tool’s purpose to practical attack and defense scenarios turned the experience from simply completing challenges into a meaningful learning opportunity.”
WWT said the virtual format can reduce barriers such as travel and cost while providing opportunities for continued training and collaboration.
“We hope participants walked away with more confidence and practical skills, and a better sense of how attackers think so they can defend more effectively,” Hartnagel said. “We would love to keep building on this with TribalHub.”