The Vertex Insider Threat Challenge is Live!
by thesilence | 2025-12-17
The Vertex Project hosted a Synapse Insider Threat Challenge at CYBERWARCON 2025. With the help of plentiful snacks (and Vertex challenge coins!), participants solved an investigation involving data theft, an extortion attempt, and some shenanignans within the fictional company Ferocity Labs.
To share the Synapse love, we've published the Challenge - Operation Deepfake - so anyone can participate on their own schedule and at their own pace! Based on feedback from participants, we made a few tweaks to clarify some questions and to ensure the Challenge flows smoothly and is fun and accessible to all. The Challenge is available via the Synapse Learning Tool on the Vertex Intelligence-Sharing Synapse Instance (the VISI for short).
How Do I Access the Challenge?
If you have an account on the VISI (our community instance of Synapse), simply:
log in to the VISI:
From the Toolbar on the left, select the Learning Tool:
and access CYBERWARCON 2025 - Operation Deepfake:
(While you're there, you can also check out our PIVOTCON 2025 Threat Clustering Workshop!)
If you don't have an account on the VISI, you can request one here.
The Fine Print
The Synapse Learning Tool is our initial (beta) release. If you have a feature request (or find a bug), reach out to us through our Slack community - we appreciate the feedback!
The Learning Tool is built into Synapse Enterprise. You can try it out yourself by requesting a demo instance of Synapse. (Note: demo instances do not currently include Learning Tool content. At this time, Operation Deepfake and the Threat Clustering Workshop are only available on the VISI.)
The VISI, its data, and accumulated intelligence analysis are available to everyone who agrees to the terms of use! Check out our FAQ for additional details on the VISI, its purpose, and how you can contribute.
To learn more about Synapse, join our Slack community, check out our videos on YouTube, and follow us on Bluesky, X/Twitter, or LinkedIn.
