Cyber Info is partnering with NODE: PROTOCOL (and we're giving away 30 copies)

Most of us didn't get into security because of a slide deck. If you've ever sat through an intro course, you know how it goes: an hour on what a port scan is, a diagram of the OSI model, and by the time anyone actually opens a terminal, half the room is on their phone. I've been on both sides of that room, and it's a big part of why we keep pushing hands-on content at Cyber Info.

So when Marc Landman, the solo developer behind NODE: PROTOCOL, reached out about working together, it didn't take much convincing. Today I'm happy to announce that Cyber Info is officially partnering with NODE: PROTOCOL. We're giving away 30 copies of the game in our Discord, and there's a free demo hitting Steam Next Fest on October 19.

What is NODE: PROTOCOL?

NODE: PROTOCOL is a hacking simulation that takes place inside a fictional operating system. You get a terminal, a browser, a mail client, and a world of 250 domains and more than 2,250 machines to work through. A lot of "hacking games" stop there and give you a big green button that says HACK. What got my attention with this one is that the tooling and the workflow map to the real thing.

The loop will feel familiar to anyone who has done a pentest or a CTF. You scan for open ports, identify the service version, search for a matching exploit, land a session, and escalate. There are 85+ exploits in the game, including real CVEs, and six different shell environments to deal with. Linux and Windows are in there, but so are IBM AIX and a BASE24 ATM. (If you've never had a reason to think about BASE24, the financial sector folks in our Discord are going to have a great time explaining it to you.) On top of that you've got C2 infrastructure, phishing campaigns, and SIGINT tooling like IMSI catching.

My favorite part is the OPSEC system. If you get sloppy and forget to clean your logs, and investigators will trace you back through every host you touched. Then the game hands you a forensic report showing the exact log lines that named you. It isn't really a game over screen. It's a lesson, delivered through the evidence you left behind. As someone who spends a lot of time on the detection side reading those same kinds of logs, I love that they went there.

The Steam page also lists co-op crews of up to four players and head-to-head CTF matches, which I have a feeling our community is going to put to good use.

Where it fits in a learning path

I want to be upfront about this: NODE: PROTOCOL is not a replacement for a home lab, a cyber range, or a certification. I'd describe it as the thing that comes before those and a way to have fun on the weekend with friends.

A complete beginner can sit down and, in about fifteen minutes, run the whole loop on their own. Scan a target, find the version, match the exploit, get in, read the logs, clean up only their own trail, and get out. The commands are real commands. If you get stuck, there's a guided tutorial, an assist system, an in-world handbook, and 49 man pages, so it's pretty hard to hit a wall and give up.

It's also a safe sandbox. Nothing you do in the game touches real infrastructure, which makes it a good place to build intuition and make your mistakes before you get anywhere near a live environment (or a client's network).

"When people hear 'hacking game,' they usually picture some cringe Autohacker 5000 where you mash the keyboard and a progress bar fills up. This isn't that. You're typing real commands, following the same workflow a pentester follows, and if you get lazy with your logs, you get caught. Those are the habits we want people building from day one."

Aaron, President, Cyber Info

30 Steam keys for the community

We're giving away 30 Steam keys for NODE: PROTOCOL to members of the Cyber Info Discord. Here's how it works:

• Join our Discord at discord.gg/cyberinfo and enter in #🎁︱giveaways. One entry per person.
• No purchase or donation is necessary.
• Entries close on October 20 at 5:00 PM ET, and 30 winners will be drawn at random.
• The giveaway is open to legal residents 18+ of the US (excluding Rhode Island), the EU/EEA (excluding Italy, Portugal, and Poland), and the UK.

You can read the full rules here.

Fun bit of timing: the demo drops on the 19th and entries close on the 20th, so you'll get a day to play before the giveaway wraps up.

Want to try it first?

There's a free demo coming with Steam Next Fest. It includes the full core loop, 80 hackable targets, and no time limit, and it runs natively on both Windows and Linux.

Next Fest runs from October 19 to October 26, and the demo goes live on day one. After that, the full game launches into Early Access on November 6. If it looks like your kind of thing, add it to your wishlist. For a solo developer, wishlists make a real difference in how Steam surfaces a game.

Wishlist NODE: PROTOCOL on Steam →

Closing thoughts

We don't partner with a project unless we think it'll help people get into this field, and NODE: PROTOCOL earned it by taking the craft seriously. It's the perfect mix of real life while still being a game. Enter the giveaway, grab the demo on the 19th, and then come tell us in the Discord how badly the investigators roasted your OPSEC on your first run. If you have questions about the partnership or want to get involved with Cyber Info, reach out through our contact page or come hang out with us on Discord.

Disclosure: Cyber Info is partnered with the developer of NODE: PROTOCOL, and the Steam keys for this giveaway were provided by the developer. This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Valve or Discord. Steam is a trademark of Valve Corporation. Discord is a trademark of Discord Inc.