Some people like to walk, some like to swim, some like to lift weights, some like to take care of their pets and some like to research. Usually tech people and academicians are great researchers. But as we all know, cysec people go beyond googling or leafing through book pages. These people has to know how to find the the chance to make impossible things happen, because cysec people operate in the niche of the niche. And thats just the regular day at the office for them.
The subject of this article is Trace Labs and the missing person CTF competitions they organize.
Lets start with Trace Labs, its a nonprofit organization based in Canada and designed to help people on the worst day of their lives. The Trace Labs community contains people from around the globe who all unite to search the needle in haystack and they do this by using mostly passive OSINT to find missing persons and for the chance of reuniting them with their families.
If you ever wished for to use your skills to contribute to society while also sharpening them as a cyber practitioner, your wish has already been granted — the mission is real, and the people in need are already depending on you. Their MP CTF competions are amazing and they definitely a heart-rate booster.
Before the competition, a few missing person gets choosen by the law enforcement and Trace Labs management team. Teams start with inspecting the police adverts. Then they get busy crawling the internet for their online fingerprints. As they find traces they submit their findings to the team coaches. Teams moslty get their submission category right. But the duty of the coaches is to be the second evaluation eye. Check the category and be the filter wheel of this big system. There is a list of categories and their points defined by the Trace Labs team.
Coaches used to be called “judges” but there is something unclear in this whole functional and simple system. Which is the duty of the coaches as you can guess. Coaches has to have an understanding of the scoring system better than the competitors. Luckily in the Trace Labs discord you can ask the other coaches or the senior coaches for their idea on a finding. This whole system is very well designed for the cause. If you are wondering coaching feels easier after the second time (at least it was like that for me.)
What is Trace Labs OSINT VM
🔍💻 Trace Labs OSINT VM: The Power of Digital Detectives is Now in Your Hands!
Finding lost information in the dark corners of the digital world is now much easier, more powerful, and more secure. The Trace Labs OSINT VM is a specialized Kali virtual machine focused on open-source intelligence (OSINT) research, combining security and ease of use.
It’s built to provide a productivity-focused experience for users of all skill levels, ensuring operational confidentiality, easy recording of digital evidence, and the ability to focus directly on the investigation without wasting time downloading or exploring tools.
This isn’t just a tool; it’s a mission: Finding the lost. Impacting real lives. And along the way, being part of a growing community of talented individuals.
Have you discovered a new tool? Have a better configuration idea? Share it with Trace Labs. 👉 https://github.com/tracelabs/tlosint-live
If you want to use your skills for the community, grow, and make digital traces a reality:
You’re ready. The mission has begun.
What was my experiences like?
I cant remember the first time I saw Trace Labs, but the striking moment for me happened when I was surfing on LinkedIn and searching for the skilled inviduals in cyber to learn more about their profiles. I saw a women who made a very fascinating career in cyber and I saw that she had volunteered in many projects and one of them was Trace Labs.
She had a senior coach badge, that day I researched for Trace Labs again and decided that is my new goal. I joined the next CTF as a coach and that how my journey with Trace Labs started.
My first CTF was real adrenaline rush for me. It was also really fun. We had a very insteresting findings. From the coaches side, after one of the teams start to build the structure its really motivating to see other teams go trough the right path. I dont remember excatly but at the first CTF I had one team for the most of the competition. My second and third time I had more than one team and I think handling more teams makes it more fun and engaging.
Rejecting findings is a really hot topic. When you reject a submission its prefferred to give them a reason and if possible a point that they can fix so it contributes to them. Thats why they changed the name from “judges” to “coaches”. Its not about being the decider, its about filtering and while doing it contributing to the main goal. Which is gathering quality intelligence. This doesnt happen with only the top 3 teams. It happens with everyone’s effort.
After the second time it started mote to feel like reflexes and became easier to handle the whole process. Even though whole process if really a emotional rush. There is one that is special. And its Free for All 😀 . Free for all is the last checking step that everyone gets pre-checked random submissions of other teams to control them on a second time. After getting tired of hours its really the last drop before getting burn out. To me feels like I have to be faster than checking the normal submissions. But its just my style.
4 hours is really long time and at the end of the competition always my neck and back hurts but its definitly worth it.
I highly recommend you to check their website too.
Decompress Sec 