The Messiah University cybersecurity team competed in the collegiate cyber defense competition (CCDC) regional competition on March 23, 2024. This year’s team consisted of David Bibighaus (coach), Ray Truex (captain), Brandan Snook, Grace Taylor, Aidan Hubley, Chris Copeland, Carolina Hatch, and Ben Clarke. The inherit and defend competition took place at Prince George’s Community College and was an eight-hour day of securing systems from attackers, keeping systems operational, responding to business tasks, creating incident reports, and meeting with C-suite executives.
Carolina Hatch, a junior who coordinated the completion of the business tasks, said after the competition “[regionals] was a great opportunity for the team to learn and grow, both in our skills and our relationships”. Her assessment is very accurate, the team learned that there is much room for improvement in areas such as using firewalls, switches, and Windows administration. The team also had the chance to network with other schools and employers to cultivate collaboration as the team continues to prepare for next year.
The team ended the competition at 8th of 10 schools, improving from last years position of 9th. While the team would like to have placed a bit higher, we are happy with the progress that we have made since the club was founded last year. Within the first two years of participating, the team has been able to place high enough in the qualifiers to earn a spot at the regional’s competition both years. The team will continue to prepare and has hopes of improving placement at regionals next year.
Thank you to Ray Truex for this recap… and way to go, team! #messiahcyber
