What Dragon Sector does

Dragon Sector is a Polish Capture The Flag (CTF) team founded in February 2013, currently comprising 17 active members and based in Warsaw through affiliation with Warsaw Hackerspace. The team competes in international online and offline security CTF competitions across pwn, reverse engineering, web security, cryptography, forensics, and hardware categories, and has reached #1 on the CTFtime global ranking twice (2014 and 2018), with a #2 finish in 2015. Its demonstrated technical capabilities include responsibility-disclosed research such as CVE-2019-5736 (a critical runc-based container escape affecting Docker and Kubernetes), VLSI reverse engineering using custom netlist extraction tools from GDSII combined with Z3 SMT-based formal methods, and original CTF tooling (e.g., the Arcane Sector game-hacking platform). Team members hold positions at Google Project Zero, Google, Invisible Things Lab, and Bank Millennium, and several are multiple Pwnie Award winners.

Beyond competition, the team operates as a hub within the security-research ecosystem: it organizes the annual Dragon CTF at the Security PWNing Conference in Warsaw and the CONFidence Teaser CTF, publishes technical write-ups on its blog (blog.dragonsector.pl), contributes a regular column ('Zdobyć Flagę') to Polish programming magazine Programista, and engages in conference presentations and earned media (TVN24, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polskie Radio). In 2016 the team was invited to meet with the Head of Poland's National Security Bureau (BBN), reflecting reputational standing within national-security circles.

Commercially, Dragon Sector is a volunteer/community entity without a corporate structure, products, or services for sale. The only direct monetization is CTF prize winnings from competition placements (pools reportedly up to $25,000 USD for top finishes), and the team's own Dragon CTF redistributes approximately 30,000 PLN (~$7,500 USD) in prizes. There is no pricing model, no paying customer base, no funding history, and no parent organization; the team operates as a network of independent security professionals whose day jobs supply most of their operating capital.

Name

Dragon Sector

Legal name

Dragon Sector

Website

https://dragonsector.pl

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Dragon Sector is a volunteer Polish security Capture The Flag team of 17 members, founded in 2013 and based in Warsaw, that competes in international CTF competitions and organizes Dragon CTF at the Security PWNing Conference.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Capture The Flag Competitions

NAICS

Political Organizations (81394)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600)

akta.pro primary industry

Cyber Defense & Information Security (National Security) (BPAIAHAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Intelligence (Strategic, Tactical & Technical) (BPAIAHAD)

Keywords

• Capture the flag competitions
• Cybersecurity research
• Vulnerability research
• Reverse engineering
• Security training events

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. CTF Competition Prize Winnings: Team participates in international CTF competitions with prize pools reaching up to $25,000 USD for top placements. Prize winnings represent the primary direct revenue stream from competitive activities.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Dragon Sector is a Polish security Capture The Flag (CTF) team founded in February 2013 with 17 active members. The team participates in both online and offline international CTF competitions, publishes technical write-ups of security research on their blog and in the Polish magazine Programista, and organizes their own CTF events including the annual Dragon CTF at the Security PWNing Conference in Warsaw. Members include elite security researchers with expertise spanning low-level exploitation, reverse engineering, cryptography, web hacking, hardware/VLSI hacking, and formal methods.

Product overview

Dragon Sector is a Polish security Capture The Flag (CTF) competition team, not a commercial product company. The team organizes CTF competitions (Dragon CTF, CONFidence Teaser CTF), publishes technical write-ups and blog posts documenting security research and challenge solutions, and develops custom game challenges like Arcane Sector. The team's activities center on competitive hacking, security research, and knowledge sharing within the cybersecurity community.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Dragon CTF
• CONFidence Teaser CTF

Quantifiable outcome

• 1st place CTFtime global ranking (2014, 2018)
• +2 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Plaid Parliament of Pwning (PPP): Carnegie Mellon University's top-ranked CTF team that has occupied the #1/#2 spot alongside Dragon Sector in 2014 (#2 globally that year) and 2018 (#2). Directly comparable: same global competition circuit, similar offensive-security specialization, and overlapping alumni placements at top US security firms.
• Shellphish: UC Santa Barbara's CTF team, a perennial top-10 CTFtime finisher specializing in binary exploitation and automated vulnerability discovery (notably the Mechanical Phish project). Comparable as an academically anchored elite CTF team with global ranking ambitions.
• LC↯BC (LeetMore): Korean CTF team that has reached the top of CTFtime's global rankings. Comparable as a non-US/EU top-tier team operating in the same international CTF circuit as Dragon Sector and frequently competing at events like HITCON, Codegate, and DEFCON finals.
• HITCON CTF Team: Taiwanese CTF team that organizes and competes at the top of HITCON CTF (where Dragon Sector won 1st in 2018). Directly comparable as an Asian-origin elite team that both runs major international CTFs and competes for global #1 ranking.
• p4: Polish CTF team that finished 3rd in CTFtime's 2018 global ranking behind Dragon Sector and PPP. Most direct national peer: operates on the same competition circuit, competes head-to-head (notably as Dragon CTF 2019 runner-up), and shares the Warsaw/Poland cybersecurity ecosystem.
• 0ops: Chinese CTF team that has reached the top of the CTFtime rankings and organizes the 0CTF/TCTF competition series that Dragon Sector has competed in. Comparable as a top-tier Asian team competing in the same international events.
• StratumAuhuur: German CTF team that has competed head-to-head with Dragon Sector at European events such as Insomni'hack CTF (finishing 2nd to Dragon Sector in 2015 by ~300 points). Directly comparable as a European elite CTF team in the same competitive bracket.
• CyKOR: Korean university (KAIST) CTF team that regularly features in the top tier of international CTFs. Comparable as an academically anchored elite team competing on the same global circuit as Dragon Sector.
• ALLES!: German CTF team affiliated with TU Darmstadt that placed 3rd at Dragon CTF 2019. Directly comparable as an elite European CTF team competing for the top of global rankings and regularly head-to-head with Dragon Sector in international finals.
• FluxFingers (Hack.lu): Hack.lu CTF organizing team whose competition Dragon Sector won 1st in 2015. Comparable as both a top-tier competitor and a peer organization that runs major international security CTFs alongside Dragon Sector's Dragon CTF.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/dragonsectorctf
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/dragon-sector

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Dragon Sector