Operation Cyber Eagle brought together 47 security practitioners across 12 major financial institutions in Warsaw to stress-test hands-on capabilities, tackle emerging AI vulnerabilities, and foster cross-sector defense.
WARSAW, Poland — November 4, 2026 — Hack The Box (HTB), the leading cyber readiness platform for the human-AI cyber workforce, and Standard Chartered, a leading international banking group, brought together cybersecurity teams from across Poland’s banking and financial ecosystem for Operation Cyber Eagle, a live Capture The Flag (CTF) competition. The competition provided an intensive, full-day technical exercise focused on operational readiness, cross-organizational collaboration, and adaptive skill-building against modern cyber threats.
Hosted at Standard Chartered’s Warsaw global hub on October 21, the exercise gathered 47 security practitioners organized into 12 multidisciplinary teams. Under real-time operational pressure, participants were tasked with defending and exploiting complex scenarios designed to mirror real-world cyber incidents. Beyond competitive rankings, the event served as a practical skills assessment, enabling participating institutions to benchmark technical proficiencies, expose emerging skills gaps, and identify strategic priorities for continuous capability development.
Following an intensive day of competition, Fire Salamanders by HSBC secured first place on the final leaderboard. Standard Nerdz by Standard Chartered finished in second place, and EBP by Erste Bank Polska earned third place.
“Our biggest takeaway from Operation Cyber Eagle was the importance of combining individual expertise with disciplined teamwork. The challenges were technically demanding and had to be completed under significant time pressure,” said the winning Fire Salamanders team from HSBC. “Hands-on competitions like this help strengthen cyber readiness across the financial services industry because they provide a realistic environment in which professionals can test their technical skills, decision-making and collaboration. They also encourage teams to share approaches, learn from one another and identify areas for improvement before facing a real incident. In an industry where resilience depends on people working effectively together, that practical experience is invaluable,” the winning team added.
The exercise reflected the shared operational reality of the financial services industry: the sector's ability to battle cyber threats depends on how well institutions work together. As attackers increasingly use Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation to operate at greater speed and scale, financial institutions must continuously develop and validate their teams' practical skills to stay ahead of evolving threats.
“Financial institutions carry a shared responsibility to safeguard customer assets, secure market infrastructure, and maintain institutional trust,” said Przemysław Jaroszewski, Head, Cyber Defence Center at Standard Chartered. “Operation Cyber Eagle moved beyond traditional classroom learning to give our sector's defenders a rigorous, hands-on environment to test their skills under pressure. Collaborating with industry peers in this setting reinforces the technical agility and proactive mindset our teams need to stay ahead of shifting adversary tactics.”
The technical curriculum covered multiple critical threat surfaces, including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning security, reverse engineering, hardware analysis, satellite systems security, cryptography, binary exploitation, web security, blockchain, Industrial Control Systems, and drone communications security. Confronting unfamiliar attack surfaces leads teams to break through functional silos, combining defensive engineering with offensive intuition.
“My biggest takeaway is that the AI era allows to scale operations, but you still need deep technical knowledge to navigate the army of agents in the right direction. Competitions like Operation Cyber Eagle are my favourite way of learning and improving in cybersecurity. Solving challenges, especially under time pressure, allows participants to get a unique experience that is really valuable when dealing with real incidents. This applies not only to the financial industry, but to any sector providing critical services,” said Tomasz Bukowski, Head, Red Team Operations at Standard Chartered, from the second-place Standard Nerdz team.
“Cyber readiness depends on people being able to apply their knowledge when the problem is unfamiliar, and the pressure is real,” said Nikos Fountas, Chief Operating Officer at Hack The Box. “Traditional training or isolated assessments cannot show a security leader whether their team will hold under fire. Operation Cyber Eagle provided financial practitioners with a realistic testing ground to validate their skills, uncover blind spots, and exercise decision-making in a live, adversarial environment.”
Fountas also noted that the exercise's primary value lies in what organizations do after the leaderboard closes: “A CTF should not be a one-off event; it is a diagnostic baseline. The true return comes when security leadership uses the findings from these complex challenges to inform structured, role-based upskilling pathways and build continuous resilience across their workforce.”
Operation Cyber Eagle underlined a shared, industry-first commitment by Standard Chartered and Hack The Box to mature the regional cyber talent pipeline. By uniting Poland’s financial security community around practical defense and continuous capability development, the initiative highlights how collaborative, hands-on training builds a more resilient frontline for critical infrastructure.
To learn more about Hack The Box’s approach to enterprise cyber workforce development and team readiness, visit hackthebox.com.
About Standard Chartered
We are a leading international banking group, with a presence in 54 of the world’s most dynamic markets. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our unique diversity, and our heritage and values are expressed in our brand promise, here for good.
Standard Chartered PLC is listed on the London and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
Standard Chartered Poland employs 1500 highly skilled professionals who work in cybersecurity, financial crime compliance or treasury departments.
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Standard Chartered Poland
Paulina Pracz-Tatar
About Hack The Box
Hack The Box is the leading cyber readiness platform for the human-AI cyber workforce, helping organizations develop and measure the capabilities of the people and AI agents responsible for modern defense. The platform delivers threat-informed learning paths, real-world labs and live-fire simulations that build and validate offensive, defensive and AI-enabled cyber capabilities. Trusted by the Fortune 500, government agencies, managed security service providers (MSSPs) and Frontier Labs, Hack The Box supports more than 800 enterprise customers and a global community of over 5 million cybersecurity professionals.
For more information, visit hackthebox.com
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Hack The Box
Sofia Vourlaki
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