Hosting the next generation of cybersecurity talent

Raymond James hosted its seventh annual Capture the Flag (CTF) cybersecurity challenge in 2023, welcoming teams of students from 14 colleges and universities. The annual event, aligned with Cybersecurity Awareness Month, is designed to educate and develop students’ skill sets while also introducing them to the culture of Raymond James. The event is a collaboration between the firm’s Information Technology (IT) and Campus Recruiting teams to help generate a pipeline of high-caliber information security talent nationwide.

This year’s participating universities included: University of Florida, Florida State University, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, University of Tampa, St. Petersburg College, University of Memphis, Johns Hopkins University, Utica College, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Purdue University, Florida Tech, St. Leo University, and College of Charleston.

Congratulations to this year’s winning teams!

• First place, winning $10,000 and a private networking session with Raymond James Information Security Leadership:
  • Purdue University
• Second place, winning $5,000:
  • University of Central Florida
• Third place, winning $2,500:
  • Johns Hopkins University

About Capture the Flag

The teams worked throughout the day to complete multiple themed challenges based on real-world threat scenarios facing wealth management firms in the financial sector. This year’s theme was “Generative AI: Transforming Cyber Defenders of Tomorrow.” During the event, students were evaluated on core Raymond James behaviors, as well as subject-matter passion, teamwork, communication, and collaboration. In addition to providing a hands-on educational opportunity, CTF helps to identify top students for our IT Accelerated Development Program roles and IT internships.

While the competition was underway, the teams’ faculty advisors attended related cybersecurity panel discussions and presentations from Raymond James Information Security executives and experts, including the FBI. The event had two opening keynotes from Nate Tuting and business partner TJ Haynes-Morgan, Raymond James chief audit executive, as well as a closing keynote from Peter Falco, vice president of industry engagement, Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center.

Thank you

A special thank you to participating schools and faculty, as well as this year’s event sponsors: Abnormal Security, Anomali, Box, CDW, Citrix, Insight, Intel, Optiv, Palo Alto Networks, Protiviti, ServiceNow, and Splunk.  

Raymond James is not affiliated with the list of event sponsors.

About Raymond James’ Information Technology department

Information Technology supports the firm through a variety of strategic solutions that offer greater business efficiency, ensure data security and privacy, and support new business opportunities. Positions run the gamut from software engineers to project managers, analysts and more.

IT recruiting

IT at Raymond James constantly strives to recruit strong talent to protect the firm and our clients’ data from nefarious threat actors and advisories. Raymond James has a very successful program already in place called Accelerated Development Program, targeted at recruiting top undergraduate and graduate talent with leadership potential.