In a recent test of practical cyber skills, Indiana University’s young Capture The Flag (CTF) team has taken second place in their first competition of the year. The effort was led by two team members, DongInn Kim and Vafa Andalibi, with some remote support from fellow teammate Gianpaolo Russo. The team placed a close second in the Cyber Fire competition.
Cyber Fire is a two day competitive event used by the DOE to train cyber defenders from government, critical infrastructure specialists, government contractors, and academia. Hosted by Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Labs, Cyber Fire seeks to train tomorrows cyber security specialists in practical skills:
Teams have to solve each puzzle, which tests particular skills and abilities in such areas as code breaking, math, sequencing, information hiding and network engineering.
The core of IU’s CTF team is comprised of students who competed in last year’s Argonne Cyber Defense Competition, as well as new members who are taking part in SPICE’s new Cyber Defense Course. This course was created to give time and space to researchers to hone and practice practical skills in digital attack and defense. One of the goals of the new course is to build a team that can go from placing middle in their first competitions to contending with the best of the best. It also helps to train students of varied technical backgrounds in the material that they will need to be strong security practitioners and professionals.
Indiana University has a strong dedication to cybersecurity. In addition to graduate programs focusing on security and privacy in Informatics and Computer Science through the School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering (SICE), IU has recently launched its joint Masters in Cyber Risk Management between the Kelley School of Business, SICE, and the Maurer School of Law. Students from each of these programs are heavily involved in the Cyber Defense course.