HTB & Kunoichi Cyber Game reach huge milestone for women in cyber

Their story

The Kunoichi Cyber Game made its debut at the Code Blue conference in Tokyo, Japan, marking a huge milestone as the first international women’s Capture The Flag (CTF) competition.

This international CTF was built exclusively for female cyber professionals under 30, bringing together top teams from the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and Europe. But it wasn’t just about showcasing talent.

The event made something very clear: women bring deep technical expertise to cybersecurity, and the industry still has work to do when it comes to representation in a space that matters for global security.

Their goal

With women making up just 25% of the cybersecurity workforce, the goal was simple but ambitious: close the gap by expanding access, accelerating skill development, and creating clearer pathways into the field.

By bringing participants together from different regions, the initiative naturally sparked collaboration and helped build a more connected, diverse, and resilient cyber workforce.

Jessica Gulick, CEO and Co-Founder of Katzcy and Commissioner of the U.S. Women’s Cyber Team, has worked closely with Hack The Box and identified the platform as critical to the event’s success.

“When we approached the HTB team about this, immediately they were all-in. We had a lot of support and their immediate offer of help really demonstrated their commitment to supporting women in cyber, as well as HTB’s broader dedication to this cause,” Jessica said.

Their solution

The event featured 30 real-world challenges spanning web exploitation, forensics, binary exploitation, cryptography, and reverse engineering, all designed to reflect the threats teams face in the real world.

Hack The Box provided Dedicated Labs and CTF access ahead of time, giving teams the chance to benchmark performance early and zero in on their weakest areas before stepping into competition.

“If we didn't have what HTB offered, we would have been guessing in the dark,” Jessica said. “So having the knowledge of how the platform works, what kind of challenges there are, how to submit flags and read the leaderboard amplifies your ability to play at a higher level.”

More than just a competition, the experience became a live benchmarking environment where participants could see exactly where they stood and where they needed to improve.

“The real-world scenarios helped provide a positive and relevant experience for the participants,” said Jessica. “These women not only left the game with experience, but they also learned during the process of competing.”

Their success

Blending training, competition, and benchmarking gave participants something more lasting than a single event: measurable growth and real skill development.

And the impact didn’t stop there. Teams also spent time with students at a Japanese high school, helping spark interest in cybersecurity among the next generation.

“We’re creating a platform that allows these women to rise up as role models and carry that message to other young women around the world within the cybersecurity field so they have someone to look up to,” said Brad Wolfenden, Director of Cyber Sports at Katzcy.

The event also reinforced something bigger: when competitions are built with purpose, they can drive real change across the industry.

“I think that’s something more communities throughout the globe should look at, is having CTFs for purpose. To the companies that are looking to purchase the product, don’t just ask for a game, get the training ahead of time,” said Jessica.

The Kunoichi Cyber Game shows what’s possible when training, competition, and purpose come together, breaking barriers, developing talent, and helping shape the next generation of women in cybersecurity.

Let's Talk

At Hack The Box, we love our global hacking community and we strive to support other communities all over the world as we continue working toward our mission to make cybersecurity training accessible to everyone - and we’d love to do the same for you. Get in touch today to see how we can help.

About Hack The Box

Hack The Box is the leading cyber readiness platform for the agentic era, battle-testing and upskilling both humans and AI agents to enhance organizational cyber resilience. Trusted by the Fortune 500, government agencies, and MSSPs, the platform delivers threat-informed learning paths consisting of real-world scenarios in gamified labs and live-fire simulations that build and validate offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. With a loyal community of more than 4 million members and 800+ enterprise customers, Hack The Box empowers teams and intelligent systems alike to strengthen cyber defenses and reduce breach risk effectively. 

Delivering continuous learning alongside industry-recognized certifications and certificate programs aligned with major workforce frameworks such as ENISA ECSF and NIST NICE, Hack The Box demonstrates external validation through recognized accreditation and role-based qualification recognition, including its ANAB-accredited HTB Defense Operations Analyst (DOA) certificate program and HTB CPTS, accepted for FedRAMP 3PAO penetration tester personnel.

For more information, please visit hackthebox.com.