CEC Students Place High at CyberSEED Competition

Imagine you are at work one day when all of a sudden your company is attacked by hackers. What would you do? This scenario is a growing reality for many businesses that are not well protected.

Each year, the University of Connecticut’s CyberSEED competition brings together colleges and universities from across the country to compete in unique cyber-security challenges. The University of South Carolina’s Cyber Security Capture the Flag (CTF) team placed sixth in this year’s Symantec’s Professional Capture the Flag Challenge. The teams were asked to attack a virtual company in a series of penetration exercises. This year’s scenario involved an insecure bank complete with real ATM and debit card forgery. The CTF team is made up of four members including team captain, Collin Morrel, Adam Formenti, Nate Fuller and Nick Connon.

Another team was also sent to participate in the new Social Engineering competitions and placed eighth. The challenge asks teams to retrieve various bits of information through non-traditional techniques. The teams were required to breach a simulated company though insecure human resources, helpdesk, web portal, email and telephone practices. The team is made up of four members including team captain Yasemin Park, Dakota Jones, Clay Norris and Abhishek Bottu.