A crisis can bring people together. A simulated one, it turns out, can do the same.
That’s what a handful of McMaster students, staff and faculty are discovering through competing in a series of organized cybersecurity Capture the Flag (CTF) events.
CTFs are hands-on competitions in which teams use cybersecurity knowledge and skills like cryptography and forensics to search for a hidden “flag” — a short digital passphrase that proves they solved a given challenge.
During the buzz of these competitions — laptops open, brows furrowed, teammates leaning in — something more than problem-solving starts to take shape.
“It’s intense,” says Jasraj Johal, a fourth-year computer science student and co-founder of a cybersecurity student club at McMaster. “A big room buzzing with people, 20-plus challenges, and only four hours to solve them.”
“You have to work together as a team or there’s no way to get through everything.”
Johal competed as a member of one of McMaster’s two teams at CyberSci 2025, the country’s largest CTF event. His team finished second in Toronto and third nationally — McMaster’s best result yet.
“We weren’t even aiming for the top three,” Johal smiles. “But with only 15 minutes left on the clock, we solved a tough certificate-analysis challenge, and it pushed us up the leaderboard.”
The competition also opened doors for students. As soon as the event wrapped up, sponsors like KPMG, Trend Micro, CN, Ontario Power Generation, Kyndryl, Air Canada and the Communications Security Establishment (CSE) ran round-robin interviews with participants from the top teams.
“Getting that interview experience was huge,” Johal says. “It shows how these events create opportunities for students.”
But the real highlight of these competitions is the community that forms around them.
For fourth-year computer engineering student Tim Philip, the real highlight of these competitions isn’t the thrill of solving challenges, it’s the community that forms when students come together and discover something new about themselves.
“For some of my peers, it was their first CTF event. Watching them get excited and have a great time was the best part,” says Philip, who has participated in various online CTF events.
Creating community through cybersecurity competition
The sense of community is what motivated Philip and Johal to co-found a student cybersecurity club at McMaster.
“We wanted a space where students could learn, compete and support each other,” Philip says.
“We saw a gap — other universities had these communities. Why couldn’t we?” adds Johal.
What began as a student Discord channel quickly became the McMaster Cyber Society, a student club dedicated to learning, support and friendly competition.
Taking inspiration from McMaster mentors
In his third year at McMaster, Philip took a co-op placement with McMaster’s Research and High-Performance Computing Support team where interim director Nicole Longstaff introduced him to Greg Atkinson, an information security officer at McMaster.
“Nicole helped me grow so much and Greg taught me about building community,” Philip says. “Their support inspired me to co-found McMaster Cyber Society.”
Atkinson helps organize a CTF team for McMaster staff and faculty who come together to compete in CTFs on weekends and evenings.
“Cybersecurity thrives when we do it together,” says Atkinson. “When people work towards a common goal or challenge, it builds confidence and a feeling of togetherness.”
For Philip, seeing staff and faculty gather around these competitions showed him what was possible on the student side.
“Everyone is welcome, regardless of experience.”
Both the student club and employee club include members with diverse experience levels and academic backgrounds.
That spirit of openness extends across roles and experience levels.
Madeline Barr, a business systems analyst at McMaster, joined a CTF competition thinking she would only observe.
“I only planned on watching at first,” Barr says. “Everyone seemed to know so much more than me.”
“But within a few minutes, I thought, why not try? And once I solved my first challenge, I was hooked.”
“I found myself going to sleep at night thinking about the challenges and logging on the next morning to solve another one — it was addicting.”
Community matters
“Learning together is important because [cyber security] threats are constantly evolving, and collaboration turns individual awareness into collective resilience,” Atkinson says.
The small but dedicated community forming around these cybersecurity competitions speaks to some of McMaster’s strengths – a relentless ambition for excellence and a natural ability to solve problems.
What starts as a technical exercise becomes, over time, something far more human.
For anyone interested in competing at a cybersecurity CTF — whether you’re a student, staff or faculty — the message from the community is simple: Come as you are.
The McMaster Cyber Society is always welcoming new student members, hosting workshops, study groups and other events.
Staff and faculty are encouraged to join a growing circle of learners involved in the employee CTF team.
Whether you’re tackling your first CTF challenge or brushing up on cybersecurity fundamentals through McMaster’s information security training, there are many ways to get involved with cybersecurity — and an entire community ready to help you begin.