Every year, the GDIT Cyber Hackathon convenes in-person and virtual teams for an all-day event designed to showcase and enhance each participant’s cybersecurity skills in a fun and competitive environment. This year’s hackathon was no different, bringing together teams of GDIT employees, cyber professionals from government agencies, and students from nearby colleges – and even one high school!

As the volume and complexity of cybersecurity threats and tools continues to grow, events like the hackathon are increasingly important forums for teams to test new approaches, gain exposure to powerful platforms and solutions, and learn from one another. This year, teams had the opportunity to use tools from Splunk, CrowdStrike, and Palo Alto Networks, solving a series of hands-on challenges around real-world defensive cyber scenarios.

At this year’s event, a total of 28 teams explored CrowdStrike’s Falcon platform, learning how to leverage the tool for cloud security and threat intelligence. They learned how to detect vulnerabilities, identify adversaries, discover cloud threats, and protect containers in the cloud. As part of the exercise, GDIT also partnered with Palo Alto Networks, which offered teams a self-guided workshop on using PAN’s Machine Learning-powered Next Gen Firewall to identify and control applications and detect and prevent attacks. Teams also leveraged Splunk’s security platform in a “Boss of the SOC” competition, navigating real-world security incidents in a blue-team, jeopardy-style event.

The winners showcased remarkable talent and collaboration. Team Tokyo earned the top prize for the third consecutive year, demonstrating exceptional skill and teamwork. Close behind, Team Istanbul claimed second place, followed by Team Berlin in third. All three teams displayed impressive cybersecurity expertise and creative problem-solving throughout the competition.

We are grateful to everyone who participated and to our partners at Splunk, CrowdStrike, and Palo Alto Networks for supporting this year’s event. Planning for next year’s hackathon will start soon – we look forward to continuing this tradition of hands-on learning, collaboration, and friendly competition.