There’s Jack O’ Lanterns, there’s costumes, and there’s… hacking?
The BYU Cybersecurity Student Association recently put a spin on Halloween with their own version; Hackoween. Students within the club come from a variety of majors, each with a passion for cybersecurity.
At the Hack-O-Ween event, those in attendance learned about and participated in offensive security challenges. Additionally, the club hosted a King of the Hill Competition and an OSINT (Open-source intelligence) competition.
Students competing in the King of the Hill competition split into teams of 2 and joined a private match on tryhackme.com, a website that provides cyber security training through real-world scenarios. The goal for those competing in the OSINT competition was to convince a target to click on a link they’re not supposed to. By learning how hackers think and navigate, students in the club build a stronger foundation for their cybersecurity skills.
Ian Cook, the president of the CSA club, directed the event and would help students if they got stuck on a problem within the competitions. When talking about his own experience with cybersecurity, he mentioned how “there are always new threats and challenges – that helps me learn a lot and it keeps things fresh.”
With the recent addition of IT and Cybersecurity to the Electrical and Computer engineering Program, our department is broadening its technological experience and vision.