With women comprising approximately 22% of the global cybersecurity workforce, organizations like Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) are actively working to close the gender gap. As a proud partner of WiCyS, we joined forces with SANS Institute to bring the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Packets” CTF to life. Inspired by the power of community, solidarity, and “girlhood” in technical spaces, this hands-on challenge was designed to sharpen technical skills while fostering a supportive, inclusive environment for growth and connection.
Over 1,300 registrants joined the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Packets” collective, stepping into the roles of a threat intelligence team. In this scenario, they were tasked with investigating the “pantalones” ransomware gang, which had listed their organization on its data leak site. Their collective mission was clear: investigate the platform, identify security oversights, and hack back to retrieve the decryption key. Below is our official technical breakdown of the challenge, followed by walkthroughs and experiences shared by our Flare Academy community.
In-Depth Technical Walkthrough
In this walkthrough, we’ll be using first-person to better describe what this CTF looked like for our participants, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Packets threat intelligence team.
Read the full walkthrough HERE