RECAP - TacOps 2026

During the weekend of March 28 to March 29, 2026, Netsoc hosted their annual Capture the Flag event for both internal and external members.

Students were given the opportunity to compete individually or in teams for the chance to win valuable prizes such as monetary rewards, relevant certification vouchers, and other useful tech tools. Whether participating in hands-on challenges like crimping Cat5e wires, technical challenges involving complex cryptography or Linux problems, or tackling intricate tasks such as OSINT or forensics questions, there was truly something for everyone. 

Students had the opportunity to hear from guest speakers who are excelling seniors in the tech field. These speakers include: Nev Kent from Accenture, Gray Kent from the Bank of Canada, Travis Bailey and George Stojanoski from i3 Solutions Inc., Rafael da Rocha from Fortinet, and lastly Prab Cheema from Centric Software. During this panel, participants asked questions that are at the forefront of many students’ minds like, “What certifications are most relevant to the cybersecurity field?” or “How can I gain a competitive edge to land my first internship?”. Students were then given a rare opportunity to speak to these seniors one-on-one and build meaningful, potentially life-changing connections. 

As the event slowly came to a close on the second day, students were scrambling to submit last-minute challenges for a chance to secure first place. Before announcing winners, we would first like to congratulate everyone that participated for their hard work, as we know many of the challenges were no easy feat. Out of all of the participants, five teams achieved the highest scores. From first to fifth place, they were: The High Table, Re;coders, The Flock, arvino, and Gold_Platers. Congratulations once again to all participants and we hope to see you again next year!

Lastly, we’d like to extend a special thank you to all of our sponsors for supporting us in the preparation of TacOps. We could not have done it without: Adaptavist Group / Venue.sh., Verkada, Infinite Cables, Lenovo, i3 Solutions Inc, Wireshark, The Linux Foundation, HexOS, and Ontario Power Generation. We also want to give a thank you to our academic and community partners BITSoc as well as the Faculty of Business & IT @ Ontario Tech University for all of their support.

Thank you to everyone involved, and we look forward to an even more successful TacOps next year!