The Galena platform sustained 50 hours of non-stop competition for 67 teams without any unplanned downtime
“Every person in this event has the skill to exploit any vulnerability you miss – and many will try to for sport. Fifty hours, zero incidents. That is the number we care about.”— Paul Ziegler.
The cybersecurity training firm Reflare Ltd sponsored and operated the Capture the Flag event at the Biohacking Village during DEF CON 34, which took place from 6 to 9 August in Las Vegas.
The competition was hosted on Galena, Reflare’s browser-based training system. Over 50 hours of continuous activity, the platform experienced no unexpected downtime, no service outages, and no effective attacks against the event’s infrastructure.
A total of 174 players signed up across 81 teams; 67 of those teams ultimately participated. Throughout the event, teams submitted 2,240 flags, of which 405 were accurate—resulting in an 18.1% success rate and roughly 4.5 failed attempts for each flag captured. Players launched 225 isolated container instances amounting to 143.3 hours of hands‑on engagement, averaging 38 minutes per session. Connections came from 61 source addresses, with 26 participants competing over VPN.
“I only have good things to say about Reflare,” remarked Danny Hetzel, Lead CTF Admin at the Biohacking Village. “They were flexible, dedicated, and responded nearly instantly to any questions. If we needed something, Reflare moved to meet it. If we had a question, Reflare was there to answer. Sometimes, because of their experience, Reflare met needs we didn’t yet know we had. 10/10, I am excited to work with them again.”
“Running infrastructure for a DEF CON crowd is the least forgiving test there is,” noted Paul Ziegler, CEO of Reflare Ltd. “Every person in this event has the skill to exploit any vulnerability you miss – and many will try to for sport. Fifty hours, zero incidents. That is the number we care about.”
Galena is offered commercially as a hosted training platform for enterprises, public‑sector organizations, and security vendors. Customers deploy their own scenarios, exercises, and internal competitions inside isolated cloud environments that function in any browser without requiring local installation.
RCTF, Reflare’s capture‑the‑flag subscription, operates on top of Galena and delivers a new breach‑inspired scenario to subscribing teams every 30 days.
“We believe defensive capability is built through offensive practice. The competitors at this event sit in the top percentile of their skills. The platform they used is the platform Reflare makes available to any organisation serious about building the same capability in its own team,” added Paul Ziegler.
About Reflare
Reflare creates hands‑on cybersecurity training that runs on real machines inside the browser. Founded in Berlin in 2009 and now operating from Tokyo and London, the firm works with enterprises, public‑sector bodies, and security teams around the world.
Reflare Galena is the company’s training‑platform‑as‑a‑service, provisioning isolated Linux and Windows environments with no installation, VPN, or virtual machine management required. RCTF is Reflare’s capture‑the‑flag subscription, built on Galena, delivering a new breach‑inspired scenario to subscribing teams every 30 days.
More at https://reflare.com
Matt Wilkinson
Reflare
+44 7861 714033
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