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Cisco CTF - Neuro Nemesis Beta Test

Event Overview

Cisco is running a private beta test of NEURO Nemesis, a new mixed CTF format built around AI security. This game incorporates Cisco AI Defense alongside Isovalent Cilium with Hubble and Tetragon, and Splunk Cloud, giving participants a live adversarial AI environment to attack and defend. This is a beta event. Cisco has selected a limited group of participants to stress test the game format, scoring, and scenario flow before it is released more broadly. Feedback from this group will directly shape the final version of the game. Participants were chosen based on their technical background in AI security, SecOps, or SIEM/SOAR operations and their ability to provide detailed, actionable feedback on gameplay, tooling, and scenario realism. Teams of 3 to 4 players will have 8 hours to detect adversarial AI activity, protect NEURO from NEMESIS's escalating attacks, and prevent the exposure of sensitive financial data from Whirlwind Wealth's environment.

What to expect

The League has developed NEMESIS — a Neural Engine for Malicious Exploitation, Sabotage, and Infiltration — and has set its sights on NEURO, the AI-powered financial application at the heart of Whirlwind Wealth's operations. NEMESIS doesn't just attack systems — it manipulates them. As members of the SAVE team, you are tasked with defending NEURO while uncovering and degrading NEMESIS's ability to control attacks across global networks.
  • Explore a custom scenario built around Cisco AI Defense: Our scenario immerses your team inside a live adversarial AI environment, delivering a hands-on experience defending an enterprise RAG application under active manipulation.
  • Defend the infrastructure layer with Isovalent: While Cisco AI Defense secures the AI application itself, Isovalent's Cilium and Tetragon arm your team with the visibility and enforcement controls needed to protect the Kubernetes environment it runs in — from network policy to runtime process security.
  • Test your skills: You'll face real-world AI attack techniques — including prompt injection, data poisoning, and model misalignment — that will challenge your understanding of how AI systems can be exploited and defended.

Goals and Objectives

Beta Test Objectives 🔷Validate the scenario flow, scoring model, and tooling integrations (Cisco AI Defense, Isovalent Cilium, Splunk Cloud) under real gameplay conditions. 🔷Confirm the game accurately tests detection, defense, and disruption skills against adversarial AI attack patterns 🔷Identify any technical issues, unclear instructions, or gaps in the environment before general release. Feedback Expectations Participants are expected to submit structured feedback following the event covering: 🔷Clarity and pacing of the scenario 🔷Effectiveness of the tools provided (Cisco AI Defense, Cilium, Tetragon, Splunk Cloud) 🔷Any technical issues encountered during gameplay 🔷Overall difficulty and engagement level

Who should attend?

Cisco has hand-selected this group for the beta based on their fit with the target NEURO Nemesis audience: intermediate SecOps engineers and SIEM/SOAR analysts, AI/ML practitioners and security architects, defenders interested in understanding how AI systems are exploited and secured, SOC leads and technical decision-makers evaluating AI security tools, and teams looking to build practical skills against emerging AI-driven threats.

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