IIT Bombay’s Trust Lab successfully concluded the grand finale of its national-level cybersecurity competition, ‘Capture The Flag’ (CTF). This initiative comes at a time when the demand for cybersecurity talent in India is rising sharply, even as nearly 50% of cybersecurity jobs reportedly remain unfilled, reflecting an urgent need to strengthen the country’s talent pipeline.
CTF is a cybersecurity competition where participants solve challenges to find “flags,” special strings serving as proof-of-hack. It tests skills across cryptography, reverse engineering, web security, forensics, and networking. Players analyse vulnerable programs or services, identify weaknesses, and submit the flags for points. In the IITB Trust Lab CTF, challenges covered cryptography, web exploitation, reverse engineering, and miscellaneous categories.
The competition drew 480 teams from top engineering institutes, cybersecurity clubs, and technology universities across India. “With India’s digital footprint expanding rapidly from UPI and fintech to smart infrastructure and AI-powered services, the demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals has never been higher,” said Prof Shireesh Kedare, Director of IIT Bombay.