College students to analyze cyber-security threats in 2018 National Cyber Analyst Challenge

PHILADELPHIA, March 5, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ten university finalists have been selected for the 2018 National Cyber Analyst Challenge (NCAC), a competition that supports the best students currently pursuing cyber-related degrees in the top programs in the nation. Powered by NBCUniversal, Vanguard, Leidos, and Pfizer, the competition is administered annually by Temple University's Institute for Business and Information Technology.

The top 10 teams passed Phase 1 and will advance to Phase 2 advanced cyber training and compete in the Phase 3 finals (April 12-13) at Temple University in Philadelphia. The participating schools (in alphabetical order) are Brigham Young University, Carnegie Mellon University, Howard University, Iowa State University, Pennsylvania State University, Syracuse University, University of Alabama at Huntsville, University of Maryland University College, University of New Haven, and Villanova University. Each university will receive an award of $5,000 to $10,000 to support student, faculty, and curriculum development. The winning team to be selected by a panel of industry experts will receive $20,000.

Now in its third year, the pioneering interdisciplinary competition includes undergraduate and graduate students studying information systems, computer science, and engineering. It encourages the development of strategic skills involving analysis, threat identification, and mitigation planning.

"Each year presents another opportunity to meld a student- and faculty-centric experience with the nation's leading practitioners," said Dr. Munir Mandviwalla, IBIT's Executive Director and Associate Professor of Management Information Systems at Temple University's Fox School of Business. "This competition provides valuable exercises that help increase the cyber talent pool and knowledge base across the nation's top programs in Management Information Systems, Computer Science, and Engineering."

The multi-phase competition aims to inspire today's technologically literate students to pursue careers in cyber security. Each university fields a team of 4-5 students and a faculty advisor to analyze a data set. The data set provides the context to a fictitious cyber incident. For Phase I each team submitted a C-level presentation to analyze the incident and provide recommendations.

The associated NCAC conference will engage faculty and industry experts on cyber risk analysis, threat identification, remediation, and communication. Presenters will discuss cyber research and curriculum challenges and opportunities including macroeconomic, policy, legal, and digital perspectives, as well as curriculum best practices – targeted toward schools interested in expanding their cyber programs. The conference will also include advanced cyber topics – tutorial style short presentations on leading edge cyber topics.

Learn more about the challenge at its website.

CONTACT: Christopher Vito, 1-215-204-4115, [email protected]

SOURCE Temple University's Fox School of Business