Japan’s Bunkyowesterns Wins Kaspersky Sas Ctf 2026 in Bali

The team earned US$10,000 after a 24-hour final combining attacks, service defense and a challenge without internet or AI access.

Japan’s BunkyoWesterns won Kaspersky’s Security Analyst Summit Capture the Flag competition in 2026, finishing ahead of 13 other finalist teams in a 24-hour attack-defense contest.

The team received US$10,000 from the US$18,000 prize pool.

PwnSec, representing the Middle East, finished second with US$5,000, while Russia’s CUT, a team from Central University, placed third and received US$3,000.

According to Kaspersky, this was BunkyoWesterns’ third appearance in SAS CTF.

Defending services while finding weaknesses

The final required competitors to protect their own servers while identifying and exploiting vulnerabilities in equivalent services operated by rival teams.

Maintaining service availability also affected results: teams needed to keep their systems running while handling attacks.

The finalists came from two earlier competitions—the SAS CTF online qualifiers and Kaspersky{CTF}—which together attracted more than 2,800 teams, according to the organizer.

The final field represented Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and North America.

A challenge without AI or internet access

One part of the competition placed teams in an isolated network without internet access or AI agents, requiring manual analysis.

BunkyoWesterns’ captain said AI tools intensified parts of the contest by finding bugs quickly, but some vulnerabilities still required hands-on investigation.

Leonid Bezvershenko, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky GReAT, said the event demonstrated the continuing importance of practical experience and critical thinking alongside AI tools.

The result reflects performance in a controlled competition. It does not establish a general benchmark for every AI tool or real-world security environment.

Part of the Security Analyst Summit

Sponsored by Kaspersky Academy, the finals formed part of the 18th annual Security Analyst Summit, held in Bali from October 20 to 23, 2026.

Kaspersky says the conference brought together more than 200 participants, with sessions addressing vulnerability disclosures and investigations into complex attacks.

For the competition’s finalists, the event tested more than finding weaknesses: success also depended on teamwork, resilience and keeping services available under pressure.

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