Panoply is a network assessment and network defense competition combined into a single event. Panoply events may be played as individual or team competitions. During Panoply, competitors vie for control of common resources and the critical services on those resources. Once a competitor takes possession of a resource, they must secure it against attacks from other players and maintain the critical services running on the resource. Competitors accumulate points for controlling and operating critical services such as SMTP, DNS, HTTP, HTTPS, SSH and so on.
What to Expect
Claim Ownership
Panoply is a timed competition event. At the beginning of the competition, common resources are available for teams to scan, assess, and penetrate. To claim ownership of a service, teams must plant their flag, an assigned hexadecimal string, inside the banner of the service. An automated scanner detects ownership changes and awards ownership of the service to the team whose flag appears in the service banner.
Maintain Ownership
At random intervals, an automated scoring engine checks the status and functionality of all critical services. If a team has ownership of a functional critical service during a successful service check, that team is awarded points for owning and maintaining a critical service. Teams accumulate points for each critical service they control and continue to accumulate points as long as they own and maintain those critical services. Teams that fail to secure resources and services they have captured may have them taken away by rival teams.
Grab New Resources
Throughout the competition new resources are added to the common pool, forcing teams to choose between defending existing assets and going after new assets. The team with the highest point total at the end of the competition wins.
Whether a professional organization or event, the CIAS can conduct a Panoply competition for you. Contact Dwayne.Williams@utsa.edu to learn how we can help create a personalized Panoply event for your organization!
Our History
The CIAS introduced Panoply to the world at the 25th Security in Government Conference held in Canberra, Australia in 2013. Following the success of Panoply at ISC2 Security Congress and Blackhat (both U.S. and Europe) events, the CIAS developed this event’s international counterpart, eSentinel, with funding and support from the Department of Homeland Security.
