2012 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Champion Crowned

Top three finalists University of Washington, U. S. Air Force Academy, and Texas A&M University

SAN ANTONIO, April 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Defending Champions University of Washington took first place at the 7th National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) held April 20-22 in San Antonio, TX.  Presented by Deloitte for the 2012 season, the NCCDC pits teams of full-time college students from across the country against each other in an environment where cyber security skills are pushed to the limit.  The United States Air Force Academy and Texas A&M University took second and third place honors during the competition.  "The teams at the National Championship are amazing," said Dwayne Williams, Director of the 2012 National CCDC.  "This is our seventh National Championship and the level of competition moves up a step every year.  Teams are more poised, better prepared, and more professional every year.  Teams have tryouts with 50 to 100 students competing for 8 spots on their school's CCDC team.  They run drills and practice year round for CCDC season. "    

The competition, hosted by The University of Texas at San Antonio's Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS), featured ten teams that were scored on their ability to operate and maintain a business network while under hostile cyber attack.  Over 1,400 students participated in CCDC qualifying and regional events nationwide.  The 2012 national competition featured ten regional winners:  California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, Rochester Institute of Technology, St. Cloud State University, Texas A&M University, Towson University, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, United States Air Force Academy, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of Washington, and the University of Wyoming.  The participants advanced to the National CCDC after winning their state and regional competitions.

While similar to other cyber defense competitions, CCDC 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 sites, 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 was crowned the 2012 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Champion.

CCDC 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. 

The 2012 National CCDC is sponsored in part through donations and volunteer support from Deloitte (www.deloitte.com), Department of Homeland Security (www.dhs.gov), SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic (http://www.public.navy.mil/spawar), United States Army Intelligence and Security Command (http://www.inscom.army.mil), MBA Consulting Services (www.mbacsi.com), McAfee (www.mcafee.com), Boeing (www.boeing.com), Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net),  Splunk (www.splunk.com), BlackBerry (www.blackberry.com/security), Core Security (www.coresecurity.com), Facebook (www.facebook.com), Northrop Grumman (www.northropgrumman.com), Trustwave (www.trustwave.com), Trustwave Spider Labs (https://www.trustwave.com/spiderlabs), NDG (www.netdevgroup.com), Zynga (www.zynga.com), Code Magazine (www.code-magazine.com), OPSWAT (www.opswat.com), Camber (www.camber.com), TASC (www.tasc.com), Rapid7 (www.rapid7.com), and Microsoft (www.microsoft.com).

For more information please visit http://www.nationalccdc.org or contact the CIAS at 210-458-2119.

SOURCE Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security

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