RIT Students to Compete in National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, April 18-20

Rochester Institute of Technology will represent the Northeast region in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in San Antonio, Texas, April 18-20.

The RIT team is comprised of undergraduate and graduate students from RIT’s Networking, Security, and Systems Administration Department in the B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences. The other national student competitors are Community College of Baltimore County, Baker College, Texas A&M, University of Louisville and Mt. San Antonio College.

Similar to the regional competitions, the national competition requires each student team member to assume the role of a network administrator in a mock information technology department of a small company. Throughout the three days of competition, student teams have to maintain and protect computer networks from an outside team of attackers while carrying out everyday business tasks similar to day-to-day operations at a corporation.

Much like real-life computer security threats, the student teams won’t know their attackers. An attack team made up of experts in the computer security industry will attempt to infiltrate each team’s computer infrastructure.

Simultaneously, another team made up of industry experts will require students to execute numerous business tasks such as setting up e-mail accounts, file-share accounts and Web sites.

In February, RIT hosted the Northeast regionals besting Champlain College, Northeastern University, Norwich University, Polytechnic University and Syracuse University to advance to the national finals.