Bali, October 28, 2026: BunkyoWesterns from Japan secured first place in the finals of Kaspersky’s CTF 2026 (Capture the Flag) competition, outpacing 13 other finalist teams from around the world in a 24-hour cybersecurity challenge held in Bali. The team took home the top prize of $10,000 from a total prize pool of $18,000.
The CTF 2026 finals, which ran from October 20 to 23, 2026, brought together 14 teams representing Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and North America. Finalists were selected from more than 2,800 teams that participated in two qualifying competitions earlier in the year: the CTF online qualifiers and Kaspersky{CTF}.
Winners and prize distribution
PwnSec, representing the Middle East and finalists from Kaspersky{CTF}, claimed second place and a $5,000 prize. Third place went to CUT from Russia, newcomers from Central University, who received $3,000.
This year marked the third CTF appearance for BunkyoWesterns, who finally achieved victory after previous attempts. The competition format required teams to defend their own servers while exploiting vulnerabilities in rival systems, with scores factoring in both successful attacks and service uptime.
AI and manual analysis in focus
A notable challenge in the finals was an isolated network task without AI agents or internet access, compelling teams to rely solely on manual skills. The event highlighted the evolving role of AI in cybersecurity, with participants noting that while AI tools could quickly identify some bugs, certain vulnerabilities still required human analysis.
“This is the third time we played this CTF as BunkyoWesterns and we are really happy to finally win,” said the captain of BunkyoWesterns. “At first, CTF was about using AI to attack each other, and it was much fiercer compared to last year, as AI tools were capable of finding bugs very quickly. However, the second half of the competitions revealed the limits of AI: certain bugs still required manual analysis and we had to analyze them by hand. We are definitely coming back next year.”
Human expertise remains crucial
Leonid Bezvershenko, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky GReAT, commented, “CTF 2026 showed us something important: even in an era where AI tools are becoming part of every security researcher’s toolkit, there’s no substitute for genuine human expertise under pressure. AI can suggest a path forward, but it can’t replace the years of hands-on experience and critical thinking our participants demonstrated this year.”
The finals were sponsored by Kaspersky Academy. Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company.
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