Brigham Young University's cybersecurity team emerged victorious on Saturday in the Rocky Mountain Region Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (RMCCDC) (https://www.regis.edu/academics/colleges-and-schools/anderson/rmccdc), clinching the first-place title after two days of rigorous challenges.
BYU, the Colorado School of Mines, Southern Utah University, Brigham Young University—Idaho, UCCS Colorado Springs, the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Utah Valley University fended off hacking attempts from professionals. Throughout the regional competition, the BYU team showcased their capabilities by defending servers, writing incident reports, and responding to business requests, highlighting their proficiency in cybersecurity operations.
The win secures BYU's spot in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) (https://nationalccdc.org/), where it will face off with the nation's top ten teams against even more experienced attackers. This marks BYU's sixth appearance in the national competition and the fourth consecutive year qualifying.
Anna Pratt, team captain said this of the experience: “This was our best performance so far of the season! They say that victory favors the prepared, and that’s definitely the case here. Leading up to the competition, each team member worked hard to fill missing knowledge gaps and to become more precise and accurate in their technical skills. Even when the practice became difficult or monotonous, the team persevered, and the repetition paid off this weekend. When challenges arose during the competition, we faced the situation with confidence, knowing that we had faced something similar before. The weeks of hard work and practice showed and landed us on the podium, and that’s something the team should be proud of.”
BYU's success in the Rocky Mountain Region CCDC underscores its commitment to excellence in cybersecurity education and training. The BYU team is comprised of students from Cybersecurity, Information Systems, and Computer Science (as an alternate) majors. We hope to include students from all majors as we continue to create excellent teams.