$ cat README.first
# README.first
# The World's First AI Security Olympiad
# Sydney, Australia — 27 June to 2 July 2026
In 1996, at DEF CON 4, a small group of hackers invented Capture The Flag.
30 years later, AI agents solve 90%+ of traditional CTF challenges.
The paradigm has shifted. The question is no longer "can you hack it?"
It is: "can you hack it when AI is both your teammate and your target?"
ICOA 2026 is where the next chapter begins.
# Select your identity below to find your entry point.
$ icoa
CLI-Native Competition Terminal v1.4.4
The world's first CLI-native international CTF platform.
One command to enter. No GUI. Pure terminal.
icoa>
This is your generation's moment. AI is changing everything — and you are among the first to compete in this new paradigm.
The world's first competition that gives every high school student fair, standardised AI access through a token-budget system. Use AI strategically to solve cybersecurity challenges across 5 domains — binary exploitation, cryptography, forensics, reverse engineering, and web security.
Prompt injection. Adversarial machine learning. Deepfake detection. Red-teaming AI models. These are not university-level research topics anymore — they are your competition challenges.
40-episode video series for absolute beginners. 384-question practice bank. 98-page official training guide. Practice platform live at practice.icoa2026.au. No prior CTF experience needed to start.
Compete alongside students from over 40 nations and regions. On-site in Sydney or via the Global Online Track — same challenges, same standards, same recognition.
No web forms. No GUI. ICOA runs on a CLI-native competition terminal — the world's first. One command and you are in. This is how professionals work. This is how you will compete.
Cybersecurity and AI security are among the fastest-growing career fields in the world. ICOA gives your child a head start in a field that will define the next decade.
ASRA — the organisation behind ICOA — has a track record of developing the youngest international medal winners in AI and cybersecurity:
ICOA is a structured olympiad environment with professional supervision, transparent OBS-recorded sessions, and a focus on learning — not just winning. Students develop problem-solving skills, computational thinking, and the ability to work with and evaluate AI systems.
Your child interacts with peers from 40+ nations, builds international friendships, and gains exposure to one of the most critical technology domains of our time. These experiences shape careers and perspectives far beyond a single competition.
We believe access to AI security education is a necessity, not a privilege. Everything we build is designed to reach the classrooms that need it most.
40-episode CTF fundamentals video series. 384-question AI/ML multiple-choice bank. 98-page official ICOA training guide. All free, forever. Specifically designed for and distributed to developing regions across Africa, South America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
We help organisations in every country provide affordable and free professional development for teachers entering the cybersecurity and AI security space. Mini challenge competitions for classroom use. International exchange and collaboration opportunities with peer educators worldwide.
The way students learn is changing. AI agents can now solve problems that took experts hours. ICOA is exploring new learning resources and pedagogical models for the AI agent era — and we want educators at the table. Help us shape how the next generation learns to work with, and defend against, AI.
We assist countries in establishing their own AI security education pathways — from national selection processes to training curricula. ASRA's experience running selections across 211 schools and all 8 Australian states is available as a model.
DEF CON 4, 1996. The first Capture The Flag. ICOA 2026, Sydney. The first AI-native CTF. 30 years apart. Same spirit.
No web portals. No submission forms. One command. A pure terminal environment with built-in sandbox tooling and OBS-verified sessions. The world's first CLI-native international CTF platform. We believe this is what competitive cybersecurity looks like in the AI agent era.
AI agents now solve 90%+ of traditional CTF challenges. Claude Code Security found 500+ undetected vulnerabilities. OpenAI Codex Security flagged 10,000+ high-severity issues. The old model — human vs. static challenge — is reaching its ceiling. AI4CTF makes AI your teammate (not your answer machine). CTF4AI makes AI your target. This is what comes next.
The reigning BlackHat MEA CTF 2025 World Champion — from one of the most prestigious professional cybersecurity competitions in the world (rated 25/25 on CTFtime, Guinness-certified largest CTF) — has joined ICOA 2026 as International Challenge Designer. His feedback on our approach: “very geek.”
ASRA is a small Australian organisation. We are not pretending to be veterans of the CTF scene. But we have a unique perspective: we have trained 12- and 13-year-old students to win international awards in AI and cybersecurity — in competitions open to students up to age 20. We believe the AI agent era will bring a fundamental paradigm shift to how CTF competitions work — and we are trying to build that future. We would genuinely value guidance from those who have been in this community far longer than we have.
From DEF CON 4's first CTF in 1996 to ICOA 2026's first AI4CTF in Sydney — we believe this 30-year arc tells a story about the evolution of security. We have a dream: to invite Jeff Moss, the creator of DEF CON and the inventor of CTF, to beautiful Sydney — to witness the next generation compete in the format his invention inspired. We are a small team with a big ambition. If you know him, if you are him — we would be honoured.
ICOA 2026 is the inaugural edition. Your nation has a one-time opportunity to become a Founder Country of the ICOA movement.
A permanent, one-time distinction that includes: permanent voting rights in the ICOA General Assembly, priority access to future host country applications, founding member recognition on all official materials, locked preferential rates for future editions, and early access to ICOA's training ecosystem and partnerships. This window closes after 2026. It cannot be granted retrospectively.
ICOA is a global cross-disciplinary movement in AI security education. Participating nations are not just competitors — they are partners in shaping an emerging field. International exchange, curriculum collaboration, and shared resources continue long after the competition ends.
On-site track in Sydney for the full immersive experience. Global Online Track launching 5 hours later on dedicated regional servers — identical standards, identical certification. A student in any nation can compete and be recognised, regardless of travel constraints.
The AI security talent pipeline starts in high school. We have practical evidence of how to build it.
We provide reports and exploratory curriculum frameworks for AI security education at the secondary school level. These are informed by real-world experience — not theoretical models — drawn from running national selections across 211 schools and all 8 Australian states and territories.
A 12-year-old winning an international AI gold medal. A 13-year-old earning cybersecurity gold — both in competitions open to students up to age 20. These outcomes were not accidents — they were the result of structured, accessible programmes. We share how this was built so other nations can adapt and replicate the model.
AI security transcends national boundaries. ICOA creates a framework for governments to collaborate on cyber resilience, AI governance, and talent development. Practical insights from a working competition — not another policy paper.
If your team builds AI, we want the next generation to know how to test it — responsibly.
ICOA's CTF4AI track is where AI red-teaming meets the next generation. Prompt injection, adversarial ML, guardrail testing, model evaluation — these are the same challenges your safety team works on daily. We are looking for technical partners who can help us design responsible, frontier-level challenges for high school students.
AI4CTF uses a standardised token-budget system — every student accesses AI models through a competition-provided API gateway with identical limits. No advantage from personal subscriptions. No disparity between nations. Your API, their creativity, a level playing field.
We are pioneering how the next generation interacts with AI in competitive settings. We crave innovation and collaboration at the intersection of AI safety and education. If you are working on responsible AI, we want to build challenges that reflect your frontier — and train the talent that will work at your company in 5 years.
Let us be honest with you.
Our core team is 5 people. One of them is a 13-year-old — an 8th grader who will turn 14 during ICOA 2026. She holds international awards in both AI and cybersecurity. We are not a large institution. We are a small group that believes the AI agent era makes the impossible possible, and that a dedicated team can change how the world thinks about AI security education.
Funding to enable students from underdeveloped regions — Guinea, Sudan, Belize, and others — to participate on equal terms. In-kind support: cloud compute, AI API credits, equipment, venue services. Technical infrastructure for distributed global competition. Your support does not just sponsor an event — it funds the founding moment of a movement.
This is the inaugural edition. There will only ever be one first. Every sponsor of ICOA 2026 is a founding partner — recognised permanently in the history of the world's first AI Security Olympiad. We are not asking for charity. We are offering the chance to be part of something that has never existed before.
27 June – 2 July 2026 · Sydney, Australia · Global Online Track
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