Welcome to CIRCUS
Show off and hone your skills in incident response and computer forensics by investigating a client breach, assembling the story, and delivering professional findings.
What is the CIRCUS Competition?
Teams receive a client scenario and forensic artifacts from a compromised environment. Your job is to determine what happened, document how it happened, and communicate clear recommendations. You'll be scored on the completeness of your reports, professionalism, recommendations, and presentations.
CIRCUS emphasizes not just technical analysis, but also evidence handling, chain of custody, and clear communication with legal, executive, and non-technical stakeholders.
Core Focus Areas
- Incident response procedures and decision-making
- Evidence handling, documentation, and chain of custody
- Host, log, and network forensics
- Technical and executive-level report writing
- Final oral presentation and Q&A with judges
Get Started
New to CIRCUS? Start by reviewing the competition rules and the 2026 schedule, then work with your faculty or staff advisor to register a team.