Iowa State University recently hosted their annual highschool Cyber Defense Competition (CDC) on April 20 at Coover Hall.
These competitions, lasting from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., are complex, but Pleasant Valley’s CDC club president, Troy Tomson likened the competition to that of a video game.
“CDC is like video games where players work together in trams to protect a pretend computer network from hackers. The team tries to use their skills to find problems before the hackers can do any damage,” Tomson explained.
Scenarios for the competition are released a month prior, giving teams enough time to build their networks and prepare.
At PV, Cyber Defense Club meets during 8th hours weekly from the beginning of second semester to the competition time. The club only started two years ago with a handful of PV students interested; however, this year, due to the large turnout, three separate teams competed.
IIT Game Design Director Ethan Ruchotzke, who is currently working on his PhD in Cyber Security, assisted PV’s CDC club.
First year member, junior Kelly Wu, explained the guidance he provided. “Ethan helped us out a lot with resources, answering questions on our group chats, and through bi-weekly meetings. It was great to have a professional show me and other new members the ropes, along with the more experienced members,” Wu recalled.
This year, ‘A’ team managed to win 6th place in the competition, and while there aren’t any next levels to advance to, this accolade shows the team’s hard work and dedication.
Troy Tomson explained the ‘A’ team’s commitment. “While mandatory meetings were every Wednesday, some ‘A’ team members met almost daily and spent countless hours outside the classroom. I remember I spent 7 hours on just Samba, a platform that includes a server that enables various client types to access SMB resources,“ he said.
Additionally, due to the competition taking place at Iowa State, teams traveled on Friday and spent the night preparing before waking up early for the big day. “It was a really great bonding experience between the teams and I got to get to know lots of people I normally didn’t speak to outside of school. Besides grinding for the actual competition late at night, it was fun to spend time with each other in the car ride and at dinner,” Wu shared.
As most of PV’s CDC club members will be graduating this year or the next, members are hoping for more turnout next year to keep the club going and show spartan spirit at Iowa State’s Cyber Defense competitions in future years.
“It’s a really fun time and will really help highschoolers learn more about cybersecurity, which is an ever growing field that offers a multitude of jobs and opportunities,” Tomson said. “Even if students can’t meet every Wednesday, putting in some effort outside of the classroom is a big help in itself.” he concluded.
