Cybersecurity Team Wins First Regional Competition

The cybersecurity’s purple team won first place at the National Centers of Academic Excellence cybersecurity competition on Feb. 12. This victory marks a win for the team’s first competition regionally and secures a spot for nationals. 

The cyber games competition tested teams on their ability to set up and route multiple computers to one network and secure it from being broken into by other teams.

Team captain Joel Camplejohn along with six other members led the team to victory. 

“For me it was a feeling of accomplishment, and I think (it was that way) for the whole team especially,” Camplejohn said. “We had just started (competing and were) able to … get first place on our first competition. I felt very proud of the way the team handled themselves and how they competed.” 

For Camplejohn, part of the stress came from not having experience with this competition. He had no idea how they would do. 

“I didn’t have anything to base how well we would do (in) this competition. It was their first year of holding this competition as well, but I definitely had a lot of faith in the team that they would perform well. They’re a great group of guys who really love what we do. I had high expectations, and they exceeded them and did better than I expected,” Camplejohn said. 

These competitions are a way to get more practical real-world training in the cybersecurity focus. Dean Dave Brat says this type of learning is their goal for students.

“So, at the business school, we want to teach students the full range of business but also have them participate in the world of technology. These students are … learning and applying their knowledge out in the real world. The job market could not be better for these students,” Brat said.

Camplejohn’s success with the purple team was not the only victory among the multiple cybersecurity teams. The captain of the Cyber Fusion team Benjamin Gordon led his team to a second place victory out of 17 Virginia schools.

Cyber Fusion competed in a separate regional competition called CTF with a “capture the flag” style, their goal being to earn as many points as possible in multiple individual categories. 

This victory was a first for Gordon as he was given the position of captain right before the competition. Professor Richard Bansley, the faculty coach, shared the decision to give the position to Gordon.

“The reason Benjamin was asked to be the team captain was because of the leadership he’s shown in other competitions where he’s on the team,” Bansley said. 

Amanda Jones, captain of another cybersecurity team, and her team competed in a qualifying round in a separate competition. They will compete in regionals from March 17-19. This competition will be more incident response style, and Jones hopes with their track record that they place in the top three teams. Bansley shares how Jones’ CCDC team runs differently compared to the previous teams.

“The incident response competitions tend to have much more stress intentionally put on the students by virtue of urgency of time and responses to situations. They get handed business problems to solve while they are trying to defend the network systems,” Bansley said. 

With substantial wins from all three of the competing cybersecurity teams, Dean Brat celebrated the accomplishments of the students and what it means for the School of Business.

“We’re busy pushing as many students into technology-related fields as much as possible as this is the world we live in,” Brat said.

Haydon is a news reporter. Follow her on Twitter