College of Engineering
Tech students finish in top three teams in global cybersecurity competition
A team of six cybersecurity students from Tennessee Tech’s College of Engineering recently placed in the top three teams at the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition global finals, the premier international collegiate cybersecurity-based competition for undergraduate and graduate students.
Teams from 16 universities put their hacking skills to the test as they performed real-world penetration testing engagement activities for a fictitious global company during the competition, which was held at the Rochester Institute of Technology in January. Tech placed third in the competition, joining Cal Poly Pomona and Stanford University in the top three. During the annual event, now in its seventh year, students showcase their technical and professional skills and gain experience in the practice of identifying security vulnerabilities.
The Tech team included Kaitlyn Carroll, Austin Brown, Austin Tice, Jesse Holland, Jacob Sweeten and John Housley, who participated in the competition remotely. Five members of the six-member team are CyberCorps Scholarship for Service students, a program funded by the National Science Foundation facilitated by Tech’s Cybersecurity Education, Research & Outreach Center.
During the three-day immersive competition, each team was tasked with identifying weaknesses in a simulated corporate environment without impacting the operations of business activities. Each year the competition focuses on a different business sector. This year they focused on industrial food manufacturing and retail sector. For the challenge, the students had to break into networks of Le Bonbon Croissant, a fake global bakery and confectionery that operates its own retail stores, with realistic websites, social media accounts and staged character interactions. Students investigated web and software weaknesses, including finding vulnerabilities.
“During the competition, you get to interact with these fictional CEOs and higher-ups in the company, the chief security officers, and it really does feel like you’re doing this job and not competing in something. In fact, when you’re competing, you can’t even refer to it as a competition,” said Carroll, the team’s captain. “They don’t like to call it a competition, they like to call it a learning experience.”
Read more in the university’s newsroom here.