SRI Adaptive Security Through Cognitive Exploitation for Defense (ASCEND) Project Datasets

ASCEND Human Subjects Research Datasets

Use of this data is subject to the licensing terms.
Downloading or using any data in this repository indicates acceptance of these terms.

These datasets were collected through a series of offensive cyber capture-the-flag (CTF) events co-located with in-person conferences, online CTF events, and other studies. Conference-based and online CTF events were conducted under the name SaikoCTF. All data was collected during 2024-2025. Available datasets are:

Cyber, Physio, and Survey Data + Screen Recordings

Cyber and Survey Data + Screen Recordings

Other

Derived Data (derived from analysis of all conference-based and online CTF events)

Dataset Sizes

Each dataset includes an archive of the challenge descriptions and blank surveys used in that event. The Poolability Sheet captures changes between challenge implementations across different events to help researchers determine when datasets can and cannot be combined.

Dataset coversheets, survey scorecards, research publications, and miscellaneous files are also available.

ASCEND was part of IARPA’s Reimagining Security with Cyberpsychology-Informed Network Defenses (ReSCIND) program.
For more information, see The ASCEND Project.

This research is based upon work supported in part by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), via N66001-24-C-4505. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of ODNI, IARPA, or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation therein.