National Tribal Cyber Challenge Tested and Celebrated Cybersecurity Professionals’ Skills
Written by Olivia Fellows, TribalHub Industry Engagement & Narrative Producer in Press Releases
Date: October 30, 2026
Tribal technology and security professionals met at the National Tribal Cyber Challenge Oct. 20-21 to test their defenses, collaborate with peers, and strengthen cybersecurity readiness.
Hosted virtually through World Wide Technology’s (WWT) Cyber Range, the immersive Capture the Flag (CTF) event, Disarm Me: Hack, Decrypt, Disable, challenged participants to act as ethical hackers, investigate a hostile environment, uncover vulnerabilities, and work through realistic attack scenarios.
More than half of the challenge participants were from California tribes, bringing the total challenge participation to over 60 technology professionals who work at tribes or tribal enterprises. This was TribalHub’s first virtual edition of the Cyber Challenge, as the organization has previously hosted in-person challenges at past TribalNets and Cybersecurity Summits.
Daniel Hartnagel, Associate Business Development Manager at WWT, emphasized the value of experiential learning for the TribalHub Community, The Largest Community of Technology-Minded Leaders from Tribes Across the Country.
"At WWT, we believe people learn security best by doing it,” Hartnagel said. “The Cyber Range lets us put real tools and realistic scenarios in front of people in a safe environment, so participants build skills they can bring straight back to their teams."
To support players of all skill levels, the Red Team Tools learning path, the Initiation demo CTF, live proctors, and in-game hints helped ensure accessibility.
While players competed individually for leaderboard spots, the event centered on community learning and collaboration, allowing participants to share insights and discuss approaches as they progressed through the challenges at their own pace.
Competitors used a wide range of tools and techniques, from Nmap and John the Ripper to Metasploit and Ghidra, demonstrating strong problem-solving across diverse skill levels.
Participant Jason Omo, Senior Systems Engineer with Valley View Casino & Hotel, said the experience helped him advance his cybersecurity knowledge.
“It was an exciting experience,” Omo said. “The most rewarding part was when I got the right answer. I am currently studying for the CEH v13 exam, and this helped a lot. I (enjoyed) getting to experience working with others to reach a goal.”
"Several players worked through the night, and four completed every one of the 21 challenges, which says a lot about the effort this group put in,” Hartnagel said of the cohort's dedication.
In the Division A category, Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, led by Angel Garcia of team Crypto Zeroday, claimed the top spot on the leaderboard with 385 points.
The Chickasaw Nation's Global Gaming Solutions posted the fastest overall completion time by Ashish Pathuri of Rapid Sentinel. Rounding out the division's top finishes were Kailani Del Rio (Sycuan Casino Resort) of Locked Watchtower and Bryan Baker (Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation) of Daring Sandbox, both finishing strong with 375 points.
Meanwhile, Valley View Casino and Hotel, led by Cristian Soriano of team Lucid Passkey, took first place in the Division B category with 215 points. Table Mountain Casino Resort, led by Kyle Shubin of Team Delta Barricade, secured second place with 195 points, followed by Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake, led by Austin Malicay of team Hardy Cipher, in third with 135 points.
Cristian Soriano and Justin Hill (team Prompt Moat) earned "First Blood" honors (the first participants to complete the first challenge), while Ashish Pathuri and Angel Garcia captured "First to Finish" recognition.
Garcia, a Sr. Security Analyst with Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation, said navigating the CTF challenges in the Cyber Range felt intuitive and engaging, letting him focus on problem-solving rather than learning the environment.
“One feature that stood out was the bot assistant, which provided timely clues that helped guide me towards the next stage of an exploit without taking away the challenge of discovery,” Garcia said. “What I found most rewarding was the opportunity to work with a variety of tools from the Kali Linux toolkit and gain a deeper appreciation for the tool's capabilities. Connecting each tool's purpose to practical attack and defense scenarios turned the experience from simply completing challenges into a meaningful learning opportunity.”
Garcia said red team-style challenges give blue teamers a powerful way to sharpen their defensive instincts by exploring real-world exploitation techniques from an attacker’s perspective.
Stepping into an adversary's mindset, defenders gained a clearer understanding of how malicious activity unfolds across a network. Retracing these attack paths in a production environment lets security teams rigorously test logging and monitoring controls and uncover critical visibility gaps, Garcia shared.
Garcia noted that evaluating whether current telemetry would have caught each stage of the compromise guides targeted improvements in event progression, ultimately strengthening detection engineering and ensuring threats are neutralized before they escalate into major security incidents.
“While I did not have many opportunities to collaborate with participants outside my organization, working alongside a peer who also took part in the CTF added a valuable team dimension to the experience,” Garcia said. “We traded approaches, built on the clues provided, and drew from our own experience with Kali to work through challenges from different angles. That exchange reinforced how much stronger learning becomes when people share ideas and techniques. I’m looking forward to future events where I can broaden those connections, learn from more perspectives, and engage more deeply with cybersecurity peers across Indian Country.”
Dedicated competitors pushed late into the night and early into the morning, with Bryan Baker (Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation) earning the "Night Owl Award" for working until 12:56 a.m. CT, and Angel Garcia, alongside Justin Hill, securing "Early Bird" honors for submitting flags before 7:10 a.m. Central.
Looking ahead, Hartnagel said that virtual formats successfully remove barriers like travel and cost, enabling continuous, shared learning communities.
"We hope participants walked away with more confidence and practical skills, and a better sense of how attackers think so they can defend more effectively," Hartnagel said. "We would love to keep building on this with TribalHub."
TribalHub COO Shannon Bouchor celebrated the success of the unique technology cybersecurity challenge event.
“Thanks (everyone) for participating, and again, a big thanks to WWT for working with us on launching this and working towards some more stuff in the future,” Bouschor said. “Love the interest. Love the involvement. Congrats to everybody for taking a couple of days and adding some more work to your plate that hopefully was interesting, valuable, and fun.”
TribalHub’s Summit board members put together this virtual edition of the Cyber Challenge and look forward to offering similar events in the future.
For more information on World Wide Technology, visit the company’s website. For more information on TribalHub and future events, resources, and more, visit our website.
Contact
Olivia Fellows: 269.478.7652 olivia@tribalnetonline.com
About TribalHub
TribalHub, a membership-based organization, is the largest community of technology-minded leaders from Native American tribes and enterprises across the United States. Over the past 25 years, TribalHub has grown to become the trusted community and platform that connects and informs tribes and tribal enterprises across tribal government, gaming, and healthcare verticals. Across the nation, tribes and their many enterprises look to TribalHub as a go-to guide for technology strategy and ability to make better informed technology decisions. Solution providers work with TribalHub to help them to create solid partnerships within this one-of-a-kind market. TribalHub has fostered many long-lasting peer-to-peer relationships that have proven beneficial to the tribal community, individual tribes, and to our valued TribalHub Members. Along with the many services and events that TribalHub provides each year, our annual TribalNet Conference & Tradeshow remains the longest-standing and largest technology and leadership event for tribes in the nation. The first TribalNet event took place in 1999, and we remain true to its primary purpose: bringing tribes, tribal employees, and resources together. Over the past two decades, it has grown into an event where tribal government, gaming, and healthcare industries connect and seek opportunities in solutions, best practices, and technology. Learn more at tribalhub.com.