SANS Holiday Hack Cybersecurity Challenge & KringleCon 2023

Contest Instructions

If you'd like to enter the contest for a chance to win a prize, please submit a report with a description of how you solved each objective in the Google form here (requires a Google account to access) by the end of the day on January 5, 2024*. Alternatively, if you'd rather not use the Google form, you can email your answers to SANSHolidayHackChallenge@counterhack.com. To win, you must use some form of AI (such as the free OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Bard, or Microsoft Bing AI tools) in solving at least some of the challenges, including in your answers a sampling of the AI prompts that you used to solve them. You DO NOT have to answer all questions to be eligible to win a prize. All reports must be 100 pages or fewer in length.

From all submitted entries, we'll pick seven winners, according to the following plan:

• One random draw answer – ONE COMPLETELY REFURBISHED ORIGINAL NINTENDO GAME BOY WITH ALL HOLIDAY HACK 2023 GAME BOY GAMES LOADED
• Three random draw answers whose users have clicked on each of the five vendor booths (Google, Microsoft, Amazon, SANS.edu, and Holiday Hack Swag Store) – A HOLIDAY HACK CHALLENGE T-SHIRT
• The best technical answer - ONE SUBSCRIPTION TO NETWARS CONTINUOUS for FOUR MONTHS
• The most creative answer that is technically correct - ONE COMPLETELY REFURBISHED ORIGINAL NINTENDO GAME BOY WITH ALL HOLIDAY HACK 2023 GAME BOY GAMES LOADED
• The best overall answer, our GRAND PRIZE WINNER - ONE SANS ONLINE TRAINING COURSE**

Remember, even if you can't answer one or more of the questions, please do submit an answer of any kind to be entered in our random draw. Seriously, if you get 50%, 80%, or 98% of the answers, you'll still be eligible to win.

The very best overall answer earns our Grand Prize - a complimentary SANS Online Training course of your choice! The winner will choose from any of SANS' 30+ Online Courses, and will complete SANS training at their own pace from anywhere on the internet.

We kindly ask that you refrain from publicly publishing any answers, write-ups, or walkthroughs until after our submission deadline of January 5, 2024. Once that passes, please feel free to publish!

Happy Holidays!

--Counter Hack and Friends

* Any time zone on planet Earth will do.

** SANS will choose only one winner for the Grand Prize. These prizes are not transferable to another person or event and do not include a certification attempt. Only one course will be awarded per category, regardless of how many people contributed to a winning submission. No substitutions are allowed. For any of these prizes, SANS is not responsible for lost, late, or unintelligible entries, lost connections, miscommunications, failed transmissions, reindeer attacks, or other technical difficulties or failures.