Competition Rules

Conduct

  1. Violation of the Rules of Conduct as outlined may result in disqualification from the competition.
  2. Enforcement of the Rules of Conduct is at the discretion of the Competition Staff.
  3. Competitors will conduct themselves in a manner that befits employees of the Federal government and members of the Uniformed Services in all aspects of the competition.
  4. When choosing team and individual names, competitors will follow OPSEC best practices and not use real names, work location, or other identifying information. Competitors will also refrain from any names that are vulgar or political in nature (In accordance with the Hatch Act). Names will go through an approval process before appearing on the leaderboard. Inappropriate language, references to political persons or parties, or otherwise inappropriate content will be asked to be changed. The competition aims to support morale building, esprit de corps, and friendly rivalries between military units, and government departments and agencies. The competition staff reserves the right to ask any team or individual to change their name and retains final judgement on what is acceptable.
  5. Classified toolsets are not authorized for use. All challenges are designed to be solved using open source tools including those provided on the hosted virtual machines.
  6. Any attempts at unauthorized access or “Denial of Service” attacks are forbidden and will result in disqualification. “Escaping” the virtual machines or otherwise tampering with or targeting the hosting environment is prohibited.
  7. Competitors will not disclose any information involving the challenges to anyone during the respective round outside of their competition team.
  8. All freely available internet resources used during the competition are allowed; this includes both subscription and licensed services.

Registration

  • Teams: Starts at 9:00 AM ET on December 9, 2024, and ends at 11:59 PM ET on January 14, 2025
  • Individuals: Starts at 9:00 AM ET on December 9, 2024, and ends at 11:59 PM ET on January 28, 2025
  • Registration for the President's Cup will close after the specified dates and times.

Support and Contact Information

Support requests are tracked in the President's Cup Gameboard support interface (an integrated ticketing service). Participants create support tickets from a deployed challenge or from the new Support link in the navigation bar. Navigate to this location within the game to view a ticket's progress and communicate with the President's Cup support team.

Please add as much detail as possible including screenshots, challenge Support Code (found in the lower-right corner of the challenge pane), any system element(s) involved, and any error messages you may have received.

The President's Cup team can also be reached via email at presidentscup@cisa.dhs.gov. Please note that using the Support interface, not the email address, will provide the most timely response. The email address is best used for general questions or information about the competition, as opposed to requests for technical support.

PLEASE NOTE: Helpdesk support will be unavailable from Monday, December 23, through Wednesday, January 1. Any inquires received during this time will be addressed starting on January 2.