Holiday Hack Orientation

Objective

Lynn Schifano mission statement

Welcome to the 2025 SANS Holiday Hack Challenge! We’re on a train heading… NOT to the North Pole, but instead to The Neighborhood. Your cybersecurity skills are needed there this year! I’m here to help orient you to this year’s exciting challenge.

I’m the Chief of Staff at Counter Hack, making sure the right people are doing the right thing at the right place at the right time – Herding cats, in other words.

I love sports, especially college basketball. My favorite teams are Monmouth University, Louisville, and Syracuse.

I’m a Queens Girl living my best life at the beautiful Jersey Shore.

I’m a proud Mom of three and Grandma of one (so far!! 🙏).

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Hey, think you can give this terminal a try? Just click on it and follow the instructions.

This introductory segment functions primarily as an onboarding and expectation-setting exercise. Rather than presenting a technical challenge, it validates that the player can interact with NPCs, terminals, and the environment, while establishing the narrative shift away from the North Pole and toward the Dosis Neighborhood. The low difficulty is intentional and consistent with previous Holiday Hack Challenges, serving as a controlled baseline before more complex mechanics are introduced later in the act.

During the initial interaction, a minor rendering issue was observed where NPCs briefly failed to appear in the train wagon. This appeared to be a transient client-side issue and did not impact progression or functionality. Once resolved, interaction with Lynn Schifano proceeded as expected.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 follows the classic Holiday Hack pattern of a simple input-validation task. Its purpose is not technical difficulty, but confirmation that terminal interaction, input handling, and progression logic are functioning correctly. Entering the expected response completes the objective and unlocks access to the broader neighborhood.

The subsequent mission debrief formally concludes the orientation phase and transitions the player from guided interaction to free exploration. The additional note regarding map rotation using the Q and E keys introduces a navigational feature that becomes practically useful later when inspecting buildings, objects, and constrained areas from different perspectives.

Overall, this objective acts as a controlled warm-up: minimal friction, clear feedback, and a stable foundation for the more analytical and tool-driven challenges that follow.

Lynn Schifano closing words

After solving, Lynn says:

Great work! Please, hop off the train and explore the neighborhood.

We’re so glad to have you here!

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Oh, one more thing! You can press Q and E to rotate the map around. It gives you a nice semi-3D view of the area - really helps when you need to look around buildings and objects. Pretty neat, right? Give it a spin!