 "We've competed in these collegiate cyber defense competitions for
the last three years and have never made it past the regional
level," said Brandon Hladysh, Baker College team captain. "I'm
really proud of my teammates and they truly are the best of the
best."Closing ceremonies included an awards presentation and
keynote address from Cornelius Tate, the newly appointed director of
the Department of Homeland Security's National Cyber Security
Division. According to Tate, the primary focus of his division is to
work on preventing a cyber version of 9/11 by ensuring that all
systems of either a federal or critical infrastructure nature are
being protected appropriately. Tate does not want to see a situation
arise in which these systems are not able to operate due to a
malicious attack, natural disaster or other incident that is of a
catastrophic nature.
The National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, hosted by the
University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for Infrastructure
Assurance and Security, a nationally recognized leader in cyber
security education and research, featured six eight-member teams
that were scored on their ability to operate and maintain a business
network while under hostile cyber attack.
The competition has grown from five participating schools in 2005
to 56 schools in 2008, with six regional competitions taking place
nationwide. This year the national competition featured Baker
College of Flint, Mich., Texas A&M University, University of
Louisville, Rochester Institute of Technology, the Community College
of Baltimore County and Mount San Antonio College of Los Angeles
County. The participants advanced to the national level after
winning regional competitions against opposing teams in the
Southwest, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast and West Coast regions.
The competitive program is the first cyber defense competition
allowing teams of full-time college students from across the country
to apply their education in information assurance and technology in
a competitive environment. While similar to other cyber defense
competitions, these competitions are unique because they focus on
business operations and incorporate the operational aspect of
managing and protecting an existing network infrastructure. The
teams inherited an "operational" network from a fictional business,
complete with e-mail, Web pages, data files and users.
Each team was required to correct problems on their network,
perform typical business tasks and defend their networks from a red
team that generated live, hostile activity throughout the
competition. The teams were scored on their performance in those
three areas, and the team with the highest score at the end of the
competition, Baker College, was crowned the champion.
The National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition is sponsored in
part through donations from leading businesses in the communications
and information technology industries. Donated hardware and software
from leaders in the IT industry was used during the competition to
provide students with the opportunity to work with technologies they
would never see in a typical classroom environment.
[to top of second column] |
 "For the first time ever, we had two, two-year colleges win their
region and compete, so it was exciting to see them competing right
along against the other four-year universities," said Gregory White,
director of University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for
Infrastructure Assurance and Security. "We've had three competitions
with winners representing three different regions, so it's good to
see that there's bright, sharp, computer-security-savvy individuals
all over this country."
The National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition is sponsored in
part through donations and volunteer support from the
AT&T Foundation,
Department of Homeland Security,
Cisco Systems,
Acronis,
Northrop Grumman,
Accenture,
Information Systems Security
Association, Core
Security, G-C Partners,
SecureLogix,
ThinkGeek,
CoDe Magazine and
Pepsi.
For more information, visit
http://www.nationalccdc.org/
or contact the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at
210-458-2118 or
info@nationalccdc.org.
___
History and fact sheet: UTSA's Center for Infrastructure
Assurance and Security
Established in 2001, the
University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for Infrastructure
Assurance and Security leverages San Antonio's infrastructure
assurance strengths and bolsters research and educational
initiatives in the field. The multidisciplinary research center is a
partnership between academia, the information technology security
industry and the local Air Intelligence Agency. The center addresses
the technical and policy issues of information assurance and
security and provides training.
In 2002-2003, the center led the highly successful Dark Screen
cyber terrorism exercise for San Antonio, bringing national
attention as the first city in the nation to conduct a cyber
security exercise.
Over the last three years, the center has been awarded more than
$8 million through defense appropriations to support community cyber
security defend-and-attack exercises and infrastructure assurance
and security research.
Personnel from the center have conducted exercises for the
various critical infrastructure information sharing and analysis
centers as well as for states and communities around the nation.
In February 2008, personnel from the center participated in the
Department of Homeland Security's CyberStorm II National Cyber
Security Exercise in Washington, D.C.
The University of Texas at San Antonio was the first Texas
university with the national "Center for Academic Excellence in
Information Assurance Education" designation by the Department of
Homeland Security and National Security Agency. The designation
means the university's curriculum and faculty meet or exceed
national standards to teach information assurance security.
[Text from file received from the
University of Texas at San Antonio]
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