Good showing for NCS student team at regional event

SUNYIT’s Network and Computer Security (NCS) club was one of ten student teams that gathered at the University of New Hampshire recently to test their mettle and their minds in the Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.

The three-day event had each team working as an IT Department would, taking requests put forth by a “CEO” and defending systems from hackers. Teams ran a common set of systems—including website, email and virtual private network—typical to any small business.

“They really pushed hard and gave everyone a run for their money,” said Peter Shipman, president of the SUNYIT NCS Club.

After the first day of competition, the SUNYIT team was among the top three teams, along with students from Rochester Institute of Technology and Champlain College. Shipman says that this news motivated the team to keep the momentum going. At the end of day two, SUNYIT found itself still in third place, with Worcester Polytechnic Institute close behind. The team was also shocked to be informed of a set-up ‘disaster’ they had to suddenly overcome – their web serve had a critical (staged) malfunction and a fried hard drive. It was a mock-emergency that required everyone from the team to rush in, fix the website and restore it from the backup.

“Our team had been pushed to the limit, with brainpower and attention a precious commodity, and not enough sleep we were all pretty beat. We finished the day strong, and walked into the awards ceremony feeling good about the weekend.”

When the final scores were tallied, WPI was third;  Champlain College, second and RIT, first; Shipman and his teammates believe they held the fourth place position by a safe margin.

“The team and I would like to thank SUNYIT, the Student Association, and special thanks to the Club Funding Board for their support, encouragement, and for allowing us to go represent SUNYIT at this rewarding competition,” he said. “Without their help we would not have been able to go. We made a great impression on the rest of the schools and competition staff, and have talked with the competition sponsors about coming to SUNYIT to speak with the rest of the campus about the industry, careers, and to help with our own upcoming ‘Hackathon’ event in April.”