We ran the first Global Student CTF

On Saturday, 10 October 2026, SET University, in collaboration with IronCyber, hosted the Global Student CTF — a team-based Capture the Flag competition for university teams, run entirely online.

64 participants competed in 15 teams, coming together from the USA, Ireland, Lithuania, Sweden and Ukraine.

The competition simulated a drone hacking scenario modelled on real attack techniques. Participants were challenged to bypass access controls of a drone fleet operator, pivot into an isolated drone network, and hijack an autonomous reconnaissance drone in flight.

The results

Congratulations to the winners:

🥇 South East Technological University (Ireland)
🥈 Georgetown University (United States)
🥉 Technological University Dublin (Ireland)

We would like to personally thank every university for taking part: United States Naval Academy (USA), Georgetown University (USA), Purdue University (USA), National College of Ireland, South East Technological University (Ireland), Technological University Dublin (Ireland), University of Galway (Ireland), Blekinge Institute of Technology (Sweden), European Humanities University (Lithuania), National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” (Ukraine), and Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs (Ukraine).

Based on a real case

January 17, 2026. Russia has been mounting Starlink satellite systems on its attack drones to strike deeper into Ukraine and extend their potential range.

The Starlink connection makes these drones resistant to Ukraine’s electronic warfare.

However, since these drones use internet-based communication, the control channel shifts from a local RF link to an IP-based network connection. This allows an attacker to target:

• the network communication channel
• the command-and-control infrastructure
• authentication mechanisms
• or the drone’s remote management services

That shift — from radio to IP — is what made the scenario possible, and what made it worth running with students.

The scenario: mapped to the cyber kill chain

Participants experienced:

• Hands-on LLM red-teaming methodology in a production-like setting
• UAV protocol exploitation experience with real MAVLink traffic
• Full multi-stage attack chain
• Skills mapped to NICE Framework Work Roles for career advancement

Format

• Teams of 3 to 5 participants
• Difficulty level: Intermediate
• Competition duration: 2–4 hours
• Online format

What’s next

This is part of a longer mission for us. Ukraine’s experience of going through the world’s biggest cyber war is unique. We want to share it beyond our country — building scenarios inspired by real cases so students and cyber professionals around the world can practise defending against the same kinds of attacks.

The Global Student CTF will return, and the next edition is already in planning.

Interested in taking part in future events like this? Get in touch — hello@setuniversity.edu.ua.