Trying to defend retail giant Walmart from a cyberattack is no easy task. But that's what the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's student-run cyber defense team had to do in its quest to win the national title at Raytheon's cyber tournament in San Antonio, Texas on April 13-15.
After months of qualification rounds, semifinal competitions and national competition, the cyber defense team at UMBC won the top title among 10 colleges and universities at the Raytheon-sponsored 2017 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.
The victory alone is impressive. More than 230 colleges and universities participated in the regional competitions on the way to the national championship. Modeled after real-world scenarios, the student-run teams work together to not only work through a hypothetical cyber attack, but they also model how they would talk to C-level executives who want to know when their site will be back up.
In general, the team works together. But the club's faculty advisor Charles Nicholas says you usually have students on the team who specialize in a certain skill: One person might focus on firewalls, while the other focuses on Lynx and another on talking with C-level executives and communication.
"The team forms themselves based on what they need and where there are gaps and who can contribute to the team," he said. "This is a purely merit based, self-selection process."
So, of course, getting on the UMBC team is no easy feat, either. The official team hosts club meetings that are open to the general student population where they practice different technical elements—students bring their laptops and practice putting up firewalls, and so on. As students keep coming to the meetings, the team will eventually pick up on who all is passionate about cyber defense and who is really good at what skills. That's how they choose who to bring onto the competition team.
"Our tryouts are more of the informal approach to things," said Bryan Vanek, a student at UMBC who was a part of the championship team. "There are other schools who literally have tryouts at the beginning of the semester, and they have a rigorous program that they have to go through. If you have that drive and you come to the meetings and you’re willing to learn, then you have a good shot of getting on the team."
With competitions of this level, students are generally self-taught. They aren't taking classes that teach them step-by-step how to defend Walmart from cyberattacks, for instance. So, UMBC's team could easily be found every other Saturday working through the competition's past tasks, preparing for what might come in the competition.
That's why Nicholas says having the passion and drive for cyber defense is the most important trait for any prospective student.
"The thing that I like about it is that students have to work under pressure as a team for several hours," Nicholas said. "It’s a bonding experience for the team members, but from my point of view as a couch, but to be able to work under pressure as a team, it requires technical strength and strength of character."
Images courtesy of University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
