DEAS, the Italian company founded by Stefania Ranzato took first place among the Italian teams and a position among the top global teams at the “Global Cyber Skills Benchmark CTF 2026: Project Nightfall”
New important international result in the panorama of offensive cybersecurity For DEASthe Italian company founded by Stefania Ranzato achieved first place among the Italian teams and a position among the top global teams at the “Global Cyber Skills Benchmark CTF 2026: Project Nightfall”, the competition organized by Hack The Box just finished
The event, considered one of the main international events dedicated to offensive cyber skills, involved hundreds of teams from technology companies, consultancy firms, universities and organizations specializing in cybersecurity from all over the world.
Italian hackers on the world podium in the offensive cybersecurity super challenge
Over the course of the five days of the competition, the participants confronted each other with exploits and vulnerabilities including 0day with advanced scenarios of cyber warfare and incident response inspired by modern state-sponsored APT campaigns: supply chain compromise, cloud intrusion, reverse engineering, malware analysis, cryptography, blockchain security, hardware/ICS hacking, and digital forensics.
With the result obtained in “Project Nightfall”, DEAS consolidates a growth path already highlighted in previous international Hack The Box competitions, after the first Italian place also achieved in the 2024 and 2025 editions of “The Vault of Hope” and “Operation Blackout”.
The final ranking takes on particular importance due to the level of international competition present in the race. DEAS in fact concluded the competition ahead of teams attributable to or associated with large global technological companies, including Microsoft And NVIDIAcompleting all 69 challenges included in the competition and collecting all 126 flags present (full clear).
Only 15 companies in the world have achieved this result.
High pressure scenarios and the evolution of cyber skills in Italy
“We are extremely proud of the result achieved, the result of extraordinary teamwork of unique talents. International CTFs today represent much more than a simple technical competition. They are high-pressure environments that measure real operational capabilities: speed of decision-making, coordination, resilience and the ability to deal with complex scenarios in extremely short times,” declares Stefania Ranzato, founder of the Company, who for years has valued DEAS’ participation in similar events. “Being consistently the best Italian team and competing at the top international levels confirms the value of the work carried out by our extraordinary team made up of the best hackers in our country and the evolution of offensive cyber skills in Italy too.”
In recent years, Capture The Flag (CTF) competitions have become an increasingly used tool by Fortune 500 companies, governments and specialized organizations to evaluate advanced operational skills, identify talent and strengthen cyber defense capabilities.
The result obtained by DEAS fits into a context of growing maturation of the Italian cybersecurity ecosystem, which sees an ever-increasing number of national professionals and teams successfully compete in the main international circuits.
The operational structure and commitment to advanced cybersecurity
DEAS operates in the cybersecurity sector with activities focused on offensive security, red teaming, vulnerability assessment, incident response and advanced training. The company regularly participates in international competitions and research initiatives in the field of offensive cybersecurity.
