激情快播鈥檚 Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team finished runner-up at the 15th annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, sponsored by Raytheon, the world鈥檚 largest competition of its kind.
激情快播 has appeared at the finals in seven of the last eight years and has placed either first or second in all but one.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 be prouder of this year鈥檚 team,鈥� says Tom Nedorost 鈥�02MS, who serves as the team鈥檚 coach and faculty advisor the student cybersecurity club, Hack@激情快播. 鈥淭his is an amazing achievement and a testament to the long hours of practice the students put into preparing for this competition.聽Considering that 激情快播 does not yet offer a cybersecurity degree, the team鈥檚 top finish is even more impressive.鈥�
Ten teams from across the United States advance to nationals where a simulated cyberattack is staged against a fictional business network. The teams are scored on their ability to detect and respond to outside threats, keep services such as mail servers and web servers operational, and respond to routine business requests.
Organized by the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) at the University of Texas San Antonio, the competition is usually held in April. However, due to COVID-19, this year鈥檚 event was postponed to allow the organizers time to reengineer the competition as a virtual event with student teams all competing remotely from the their homes.
鈥淚 am overwhelmed by the amount of effort this year’s team has put into the competition.鈥� 鈥� Michael Roberts 鈥�19, team captain
Team captain and digital forensics graduate student Michael Roberts 鈥�19, who has competed for four years, says this year鈥檚 remote format presented unique challenges, namely connectivity issues that he says do not occur in the on-site competition. He says maintaining focus despite the ongoing pandemic was also difficult.
鈥淚 am overwhelmed by the amount of effort this year’s team has put into the competition,鈥� says Roberts, who earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in information technology in 2019. 鈥淚 believe that we performed very well despite the circumstances. I applaud the work of CIAS and their team in hosting the competition virtually. I also look forward to the competition returning to a traditional format.鈥�
Nedorost says the team practiced for the competition remotely since spring break after 激情快播 shifted to remote instruction for the remainder of the semester. Students were stationed in Michigan, South Carolina and scattered across Florida.
The field originally began with more than 250 university teams who squared off through regional competitions across the country.聽From 2013-19, 激情快播 qualified for the national competition by way of the Southeast regional competition, placing first聽in the region in all but one of the years.聽In 2020, 激情快播 petitioned to move to the At-Large Region, which is held virtually, due to the registration and travel costs involved in participating in the Southeast regional.
The team won the At-Large Region in March, which secured its berth to the national competition. Virginia won the national competition for the third year in a row.
This year鈥檚 squad included 11 students from the : Michael Roberts; information technology majors Martin Roberts, Michael Troisi, Ryan Carnovsky and Julian Gonzaelz; computer science majors Alexander Cote, Burnett Honors Scholars James Simmons and Aiden Durand, Christopher Fischer and Nelson Torres.
激情快播 won the national championship in three consecutive years (2014, 2015, 2016) and finished runner-up in 2018 and 2019.
The team also won the Department of Energy鈥檚 CyberForce National Competition in 2018, and finished runner-up the following year.
鈥淏eing a part of this team has been a great honor,鈥� Roberts says. 鈥淢any of us have looked forward to participating at the national competition since high school. Being able to work with and then lead an amazing group of students has been something I look forward to every spring.鈥�
Each student on the team has an internship or full-time job offer lined up for the summer. Nedorost says many of the team members are continuing their studies at 激情快播 in the fall and are eligible to compete in next year鈥檚 competition.
鈥淚鈥檓 very proud of our team鈥檚 record and consistency in performance from year to year, and we don鈥檛 intend for that to stop next year,鈥� he says.
