Montana Tech Cyber Defense Club Victorious at Competition

Montana Tech’s Cyber Defense Club (CCDC) placed first at the regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition held this past week in Madison, South Dakota.

Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions ask student teams to assume administrative and protective duties for an existing “commercial” network – typically a small company with 50+ users, 7 to 10 servers, and common Internet services such as a web server, mail server, and e-commerce site. Each team begins the competition with an identical set of hardware and software and is scored on their ability to detect and respond to outside threats, maintain availability of existing services such as mail servers and web servers, respond to business requests such as the addition or removal of additional services, and balance security needs against business needs. Throughout the competition an automated scoring engine is used to verify the functionality and availability of each team’s services on a periodic basis and traffic generators continuously feed simulated user traffic into the competition network. A volunteer red team provides the “external threat” all Internet-based services face and allows the teams to match their defensive skills against live opponents."

Montana Tech team members include: Erica Lynn Anderson, B.S. network technology; Dustin LaMiaux, BS network technology, minor in computer science; Mandela Hollowell, BS network technology, AAS web development & administration; Brittany Perry, BS network technology, AAS web development & administration; Robert Larson, BS network technology, AAS web development & administration; Levi Hope, BS network Technology; Levi Mayo, BS network technology and Matt Brady, BS network technology.

The team is advised by Information Technology instructor Jim Freebourn. As the top team, they receive an all-expense paid trip to San Antonio, TX on April 13 - 15 for the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Montana Tech’s CCDC took first place at the regional competition in 2010 and also placed second last year.

Erica Anderson, the CCDC president, noted, “The CCDC has been working since August to prepare for the regional competition in Madison, SD. I'm proud of the hard work and diligence each member put in and it paid off with first place. We're all looking forward to going to Nationals and competing."

For more information you can add contact Jim Freebourn at jfreebourn@mtech.edu.