From 8,200+ teams to 47 finalists, the 36-hour national cybersecurity and AI challenge wrapped up with a Conclave and Prize Distribution, followed by winners’ interaction with the Vice Chief of Army Staff
New Delhi, October 10, 2026: The Indian Army’s Terrier Cyber Quest 3.0, organised by the Territorial Army in collaboration with CyberPeace, has concluded in New Delhi. The national contest drew 8,200+ teams from more than 2,500 institutions. Only 47 teams, roughly one in every 170 that entered, reached the finale. It brought together talent from academia, industry, research institutions, government and the Armed Forces to tackle emerging digital threats and technology-driven national-security challenges.
The 2026 edition ran across three tracks. Bug Hunting drew 7,000+ registrations and 6,471 entries in its online Capture-the-Flag qualifier, and sent 19 finalists to the finale. AI Kavach, on predictive threat intelligence, automated defence and anomaly detection, drew 800+ registrations and sent 16 finalists. The Creators Challenge, on awareness campaigns against deepfakes, phishing, online scams and misinformation, drew 200+ registrations and sent 12 finalists, in keeping with the theme of Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
The Bug Hunting finale ran for 36 hours from October 5 to 7 in a simulated national-infrastructure sandbox, where shortlisted teams detected and documented vulnerabilities. An expert jury assessed the submissions on severity, originality and complexity.
Participation cut across the country’s leading institutions, including IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Kanpur, NFSU, Rashtriya Raksha University, Army Institute of Technology, MCTE Mhow, VIT, Chandigarh University, SRM University, Amrita University, the University of Delhi and Army Public Schools, alongside industry teams from TCS, Infosys, Accenture, HCLTech and Wipro. In Bug Hunting, NFSU led with 120 entries, followed by Chennai Institute of Technology (88), Chandigarh University (79), Rashtriya Raksha University (70) and SRM (59). In AI Kavach, VIT led with 23 entries, followed by Army Institute of Technology, Pune (22), IIT Madras (11), and IIT Kharagpur and Rashtriya Raksha University (10 each).
On October 8, participants visited key defence establishments before gathering at the United Services Institution (USI) for the Conclave and Prize Distribution. Lt Gen Sandeep Jain, AVSM, SM, Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS), and Dr. Sridhar Vembu, Chief Scientist and Co-founder of Zoho Corporation, felicitated the winners.
Lt Gen Sandeep Jain, AVSM, SM, Vice Chief of the Army Staff (VCOAS) gave his compliments to the winners. Now in its third edition, Terrier Cyber Quest has widened its scope from cybersecurity to include AI-driven threat detection and digital-awareness storytelling. It reflects the Indian Army’s continued effort to bring academia, industry, government and the Armed Forces together around India’s cyber and defence landscape.