There were 128 teams, consisting of five to 10 players each, in the competition, representing schools such as Penn State University, Texas A&M, and the University of Maryland. Student teams work together to solve problems that mirror real world crisis events, working under deadlines and technical and resource constraints. Topics ranged from network mapping, reading/interpreting network traffic captures, reverse engineering, system exploitation, and network forensics. Teams competed from remote locations.
The Liberty team “Shamrock,” captained by senior Dustin Bowe, competed at the Gold level, which requires experienced players who have the highest level of knowledge and skill regarding cyber security and are in the top 15 percent of scored players in the NCL. The team included junior James Hogan, senior Troy Cosner, senior Joe Moyer, senior David Yates, graduate student Charlie Snyder (M.S. in Cyber Security), senior Mike Merrill, and senior Michaela Bixler.
Teams were placed in brackets after a preseason qualifying event. Liberty also had a team qualify for the Silver Bracket in the early competition.
Dr. Mark Shaneck, director of Liberty’s Center for Cyber Security, sees the win as a testament to the growth and quality of the program.
“Our students are continuing to show that they can successfully compete in the cyber security arena at the national level,” Shaneck said. “Our cyber security program is growing quickly and becoming a leader in the field. Our overall goal is to have this region be nationally known for its cyber security expertise, and I think that the results from this competition help to show that we are making progress toward that goal.”
Liberty’s School of Engineering & Computational Sciences has a lot to offer aspiring cyber defenders at the undergraduate and graduate level. The program is looking to get high schoolers interested as well. The department will be hosting a new cyber security summer camp this year for local high school students and plans to host high school cyber competitions in the future.