Reflare reports zero-incidence DEF CON 34 CTF at Biohacking Village

Reflare Ltd says its Galena platform powered the Biohacking Village Capture the Flag event at DEF CON 34 in Las Vegas from Aug. 6-9 with no unplanned downtime or successful attacks against event infrastructure. The company says the competition drew 67 teams, 174 players and 2,240 flag submissions, underscoring demand for browser-based cybersecurity training that can hold up under live attack pressure.

Why it matters: - DEF CON is a high-pressure test for cybersecurity infrastructure, where skilled participants actively look for weaknesses. - Reflare used the event to show that its browser-based training platform can support large-scale, hands-on exercises without operational failures. - The result gives enterprises, public sector groups, and security vendors a live reference point for how browser-delivered training can perform under adversarial conditions.

What happened: - Reflare Ltd sponsored and hosted the Capture the Flag competition at the Biohacking Village during DEF CON 34 in Las Vegas from Aug. 6 to 9. - The competition ran on Galena, Reflare's browser-based training platform. - Over 50 hours of continuous operation, the platform recorded no unplanned downtime, no service interruptions, and no successful attacks against event infrastructure.

The details: - 174 players registered across 81 teams, and 67 teams entered the competition. - Participants submitted 2,240 flags. - Of those submissions, 405 were correct. - The event produced an 18.1% success rate, or roughly four and a half failed attempts for every flag captured. - Players launched 225 isolated container instances. - Those instances totaled 143.3 hours of hands-on use, averaging 38 minutes per session. - Connections came from 61 source addresses. - 26 players competed over VPN. - Danny Hetzel, Lead CTF Admin at the Biohacking Village, said Reflare was flexible, dedicated, and responded nearly instantly to questions. - Paul Ziegler, Reflare's CEO, said running infrastructure for a DEF CON crowd is a severe test and that the 50-hour, zero-incident result was the number that mattered. - More information is available at Reflare's website.

Between the lines: - The event statistics suggest the competition drew serious technical engagement rather than passive participation. - The zero-downtime result is the main proof point Reflare is highlighting for Galena's reliability in hostile environments. - Reflare is positioning Galena not just as a competition platform, but as infrastructure for internal training and breach-style exercises.

What's next: - Galena remains commercially available to enterprises, public sector bodies, and security vendors as a hosted training platform. - Customers can deploy their own scenarios, exercises, and internal competitions into isolated cloud environments that run in a browser with no local installation. - RCTF, Reflare's capture the flag subscription built on Galena, continues to deliver a new breach-inspired scenario to subscribing teams every 30 days. - Reflare says its broader goal is to help organizations build defensive capability through offensive practice.