About Company
Peaches Cloud is a cybersecurity education and compliance platform focused on making cybersecurity compliance easier to understand and navigate.
The platform brings together complex NIST and CMMC frameworks in an accessible resource, helping organizations understand cybersecurity requirements, the controls behind them, and their importance in real-world security environments.
To bring the practical side of cybersecurity compliance to the DEF CON community, Peaches Cloud created the Hacking GRC Contest at DEF CON 34, a hands-on Capture The Flag experience focused on exploring CMMC concepts through practical cybersecurity challenges.
Challenges
GRC and cybersecurity compliance are often approached through policies, frameworks, documentation, and checklists.
However, understanding a security control is different from understanding how a security weakness can become a real-world vulnerability.
Peaches Cloud wanted to create an experience that could:
Make CMMC More Practical
Participants needed an opportunity to explore compliance concepts through hands-on cybersecurity challenges rather than theoretical discussions alone.
Connect Compliance and Technical Security
The competition needed to demonstrate the relationship between security controls, compliance gaps, vulnerabilities, and real-world threats.
Deliver an Engaging DEF CON Experience
Peaches Cloud wanted to create an interactive cybersecurity competition that would attract technically skilled participants while introducing them to the practical side of GRC.
Simplify CTF Management
The organizers needed a reliable platform capable of hosting challenges, managing participants and submissions, tracking scores, and providing a smooth competition experience.
Solution
Peaches Cloud used Simulations Labs as the CTF hosting platform for the Hacking GRC Contest at DEF CON 34.
The solution included:
CMMC-Focused CTF
The competition was designed around the practical aspects of Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, allowing participants to explore security controls, compliance gaps, and cybersecurity threats through hands-on challenges.
Hands-On Learning Experience
Rather than simply learning about compliance requirements, participants investigated technical challenges and explored how security weaknesses can relate to broader compliance and risk considerations.
Competition Management
Simulations Labs provided the environment for managing challenges, participant submissions, scoring, and leaderboard functionality throughout the competition.
Reliable CTF Infrastructure
The platform handled the technical environment, allowing Peaches Cloud to focus on challenge content, the CMMC theme, and the participant experience instead of managing the underlying CTF infrastructure.
Outcome
The Hacking GRC Contest demonstrated how cybersecurity competitions can make compliance and GRC concepts more engaging and practical.
The initiative helped:
· Connect CMMC concepts with hands-on cybersecurity challenges
· Give participants practical exposure to security controls and compliance gaps
· Demonstrate the relationship between compliance and technical security
· Create an engaging cybersecurity experience for DEF CON participants
· Simplify the technical management of the CTF for organizers
· Provide participants with an interactive way to explore cybersecurity and GRC concepts
By leveraging Simulations Labs, Peaches Cloud was able to turn cybersecurity compliance concepts into a hands-on competition experience, demonstrating how CTFs can be used not only for technical skills development but also for GRC, compliance, and security readiness.
Customer Quote
"Simulations Labs was a dream to work with compared to other CTF hosting platforms. Their responses were immediate, the CTF challenge design was precise, and the data collected was exactly what we needed.
For the price point, Simulations Labs is highly competitive with other global CTF and cybersecurity learning platforms. The platform is intuitive, reliable, and required minimal instruction to get up and running.
Their challenge design also demonstrates a strong breadth of cybersecurity experience.
10/10 — highly recommend Simulations Labs, and I look forward to working with them again!"
— Lewis P, Peaches Cloud
