The
2014 UAT WRCCDC Team
By
William Hartmann, Senior NetSec and Tech Forensics Student
The Spring semester is looked forward to by a certain
group of Network Security students. There’s two main reasons for this: Black
Hat volunteer registration takes place, and the Western Regional Collegiate
Cyber Defense Competition takes place. Most know about Black Hat, which is a
national network security professional conference that takes place each year in
Las Vegas, Nevada. The WRCCDC is not known by very many outside of the
competitors. So, what exactly is this event? The Western Regional Collegiate
Cyber Defense Competition in Pomona, California is a weekend long battle pitting a team of eight students against actual security professionals
attempting to penetrate their networks. The students have to fend off attacks
while maintaining services (such as a website, email server, etc.) and provide
support to simulated customers. They also receive periodic “support tickets”
called injects, which require things like adding user accounts, writing
policies, or even giving presentations to a Board of Directors. This board is
usually made up of other industry professionals, judging them as they would
their own employees. While it is an extremely difficult weekend, the payoff is
wonderful, giving students a chance to test their skills, and network with
those in the industry. The top team gets to compete in the National CCDC, in
San Antonio, Texas. No matter what place, it still makes a great resume booster
as well. This year’s team has been working hard, and will participate in the
qualifier March 1st, which decides whether or not they get to
compete in Pomona.
