BunkyoWesterns Crowned Champion at Kaspersky SAS CTF 2026

Team BunkyoWesterns secured the top position at the finals of the SAS CTF 2026 cybersecurity competition, hosted by global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky. Competing in a high-stakes real-time attack-and-defense finals, the team claimed the championship trophy alongside a 10,000 USD cash prize.

The finals took place during the 18th annual Security Analyst Summit (SAS) in Bali, Indonesia, from October 20-23, 2026. Sponsored by Kaspersky Academy, the tournament gathered 14 finalist teams representing Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and North America, selected from an initial pool of over 2,800 participating teams across qualifying rounds.

Middle Eastern finalist PwnSec secured second place with a 5,000 USD award, while team CUT from Central University in Russia took third place, winning 3,000 USD.

During the live confrontation, teams defended their own operational infrastructure while exploiting vulnerabilities on identical rival server architectures. Scores factored in service uptime under active stress. A key technical challenge presented an isolated network entirely disconnected from AI agents and external internet feeds, requiring competitors to conduct manual vulnerability exploitation and patch analysis.

Commenting on the victory, the captain of BunkyoWesterns noted that while AI tools accelerated early bug discovery, manual analysis ultimately proved decisive in executing complex exploits.

Leonid Bezvershenko, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky GReAT, emphasized that even as AI instruments integrate into security workflows, genuine human intuition, critical thinking, and technical experience remain irreplaceable in defensive and offensive operations under pressure.

//DBTech/CPSS/SMP/MIST//