CEDAR and DATDA have competed in several capture the flag (CTF) contests during this fall semester. One such contest was held by the National Cyber League, a non-profit dedicated to providing virtual training grounds to help tackle the increasing shortage of trained cybersecurity professionals in industry. This organization was founded by other various foundations such as the Cyber Security Privacy and Research Institute(CSPRI), the Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance(CSSIA) among others.
The challenges that competitors face were broken up into several different categories:
This competition was broken up into four stages. To begin with and help sharpen skills there was a Gymnasium for all competitors with practice challenges that spanned all the different categories.
Then competitors begin the first qualifying event with the Pre-Season set of challenges, and performance in this event determines which bracket a competitor is placed in for the Regular Season. Two students were ranked in the top 40 out of approximately on the national leaderboard by the end of the Pre-Season.
After this first qualifier, CEDAR and DATDA had 6 students in the Gold bracket, 4
in the Silver bracket, and 2 students in the Bronze bracket. Students competed exceptionally
in the regular season with one student ranked 39th overall on the national leaderboard
and several other students just shy of making the top 100 by a few points.
Both the pre-season and regular season were individual-based competitions, but the final challenge, the Post-Season, provided students the opportunity to form teams with their fellow competitors to pit their combined skills against one another. CEDAR and DATDA fielded 3 different teams each consisting of 4-5 members. One out of our three teams managed to finish in 49th place overall nationally.
CEDAR and DATDA are always looking for new challenges and competitions and have several planned for the rest of the fall. If you are interested in joining CEDAR or have any questions about the lab please visit here. If you interested in joining the cybersecurity RSO(DATDA) please visit datda.tk.