UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team finished runner-up at the 15th annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, sponsored by Raytheon, the world 麻豆精品 S檚 largest competition of its kind.
UCF has appeared at the finals in seven of the last eight years and has placed either first or second in all but one.
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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 麻豆精品 S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.
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Team captain and digital forensics graduate student Michael Roberts 麻豆精品 S�19, who has competed for four years, says this year 麻豆精品 S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.
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Nedorost says the team practiced for the competition remotely since spring break after UCF 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, UCF 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, UCF 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 麻豆精品 S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.
UCF 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 麻豆精品 S檚 CyberForce National Competition in 2018, and finished runner-up the following year.
麻豆精品 S淏eing a part of this team has been a great honor, 麻豆精品 S� Roberts says. 麻豆精品 S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. 麻豆精品 S�
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 UCF in the fall and are eligible to compete in next year 麻豆精品 S檚 competition.
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