A team from Kazakhstan took 2nd place at the international cyber battle Standoff 15 as part of Positive Hack Days 2025

From May 21 to 24, 2025, the international cyber festival Positive Hack Days Fest took place in Moscow, organized by Positive Technologies. One of the central events of the festival was the largest cyber battle in Eastern Europe, Standoff 15 — a competition for information security specialists.

This year, the virtual state where the cyber battle took place consisted of seven industries: energy, metallurgy, oil and gas, logistics, aviation, banking sector, and urban environment. The infrastructure was filled with operational IT and OT services — from mobile applications and digital twins to industrial controllers and payment platforms.

30 attacking teams and 12 defending teams from 18 countries, including Kazakhstan, participated in the cyber battle. Over four days, the teams implemented 383 critical attack scenarios and discovered 924 vulnerabilities.

The Kazakh team FR13NDS & RHACKERS took second place, scoring 127,466 points, and received a prize of $10,000. The winner of Standoff 15 for the seventh time was the DreamTeam team — 195,388 points, and third place went to Dataeli & only_f4st — 103,870 points.

Additionally, the FR13NDS & RHACKERS team managed to earn a bonus for First Blood — implementing the first successful attack in the cyber battle. Over four days, they were able to implement 33 critical events in seven segments: urban environment, logistics, oil and gas industry, metallurgy, energy, banking sector, and aviation.

Positive Hack Days Fest 2025 became the largest in its history: more than 150,000 people attended the event in person, and more than 180,000 joined online. The festival included 270 reports across 26 areas, with the participation of more than 500 speakers, including cybersecurity experts, software developers, ethical hackers, and IT company executives.