Game Terms and Official Rules
Rules for participation, scoring, fair play, and prize eligibility in the Monthly Security Challenge.
DRAFT FOR REVIEW — NOT YET APPROVED FOR FINAL PUBLICATION
This working draft must not be published as final until every bracketed placeholder is replaced and program-owner and legal/compliance review is complete.
- Effective date: [Effective date]
- Program administrator: [Program Administrator]
- Questions: [support email]
1. Acceptance and Incorporated Terms
By participating, you agree to these Game Terms and Official Rules, the HPE Terms of Use, the HPE Privacy Statement, and the instructions provided with each challenge.
These rules supplement, and do not replace, applicable HPE terms. If approved program-specific rules conflict with general competition mechanics, the approved program-specific rules govern those mechanics, while mandatory law and applicable corporate terms remain controlling.
2. Program and Accounts
The game uses CTFd and TechAccelerator. Participation is individual only. Each participant may use one TechAccelerator-linked account and is responsible for protecting that account and providing accurate eligibility information.
No purchase is necessary to enter or win. A purchase does not improve a participant's score or prize eligibility.
3. Eligibility
- You must be at least 18 years old or the age of legal majority where you live, whichever is greater.
- Participation and prize eligibility are subject to applicable local laws, employer policies, contractual restrictions, sanctions, export controls, and other compliance requirements.
- The program is void where prohibited or restricted by law.
- HPE employees may participate and appear in the standings but cannot receive prizes.
- Partners and other non-HPE participants may receive prizes only when applicable law, their employer, and relevant policies permit it.
- A government or other public-sector employee who cannot legally or ethically accept a gift or prize is prize-ineligible. The prize passes to the next eligible ranked participant.
4. Game Periods and Scoring
- Monthly scores reset at each monthly rollover.
- All-Time standings accumulate during the calendar year and reset at the beginning of the next calendar year.
- CTFd and the monthly-game plugin records are the authoritative scoring records.
- Rollover processing may complete shortly after the scheduled boundary.
- The Program Administrator may correct demonstrable scoring or system errors and will apply corrections consistently.
5. Prizes and Winner Selection
Prize descriptions, approximate values, delivery details, and any additional eligibility requirements will appear on the Prizes page. Apparent winners must complete any reasonable verification requested before fulfillment. Winners are responsible for taxes, duties, disclosures, permissions, and employer approvals required by applicable law or policy.
A prize may not be transferred or substituted except where the approved prize rules or applicable law permit it. If an apparent winner is ineligible, declines, cannot accept, fails verification, or does not respond within the reasonable deadline stated in the winner notice, the prize passes to the next eligible ranked participant.
Monthly ties
Every eligible participant tied for the winning monthly score receives the applicable monthly prize.
Annual ties
Annual ties are resolved in this order:
- Most monthly first-place finishes during the calendar year.
- Most total challenges solved during the calendar year.
- Earliest time at which the participant reached the final tied annual score.
6. Authorized Play and Prohibited Conduct
You may interact only with the CTFd game and the TechAccelerator demo environments expressly linked by a challenge. You may not:
- attack, scan, disrupt, or attempt unauthorized access to CTFd, TechAccelerator, HPE, or third-party infrastructure;
- use automated submissions, scrape gameplay systems, manipulate scores, or bypass technical controls;
- use multiple accounts, impersonate another person, share credentials, or provide false eligibility information;
- share challenge answers, flags, or solution-specific evidence before the Program Administrator authorizes disclosure;
- interfere with another participant or degrade shared demo resources; or
- engage in illegal, abusive, harassing, deceptive, or policy-violating conduct.
A violation may result in submission reversal, score adjustment, disqualification, account suspension, prize forfeiture, or referral through appropriate security or compliance channels.
7. Privacy and Records
Account identifiers, scores, submissions, authentication events, challenge activity, eligibility-verification information, and audit records may be processed to operate, secure, administer, and evaluate the game and to fulfill prizes.
Review the game Privacy page and the HPE Privacy Statement for more information.
8. Availability and Changes
The game, demos, challenges, schedule, or prizes may be modified, suspended, or discontinued when reasonably necessary for security, integrity, legal compliance, operational reasons, or events outside reasonable control.
Material rule changes will be posted with an updated effective date and, where practical, applied prospectively. Uninterrupted availability and error-free challenge content are not guaranteed.
9. Administration and Questions
[Program Administrator] administers the competition and resolves scoring, eligibility, conduct, and rule-interpretation questions consistently and in good faith, subject to applicable law and HPE policy.
Questions may be sent to [support email].