Who’s that?
Let us introduce you to the 2016 Pace Cyber Team! From left to right, back row first: Benjamin Longobardi, Kenneth Almodovar, Gabriel Rivera, Joel Thomas, Norissa Lamaute, Mario Pichardo, and Jordan Adelman. In the front row: Joseph Glasser, Carlo Clarke, and Alexa Piccoli
These cybersecurity enthusiasts trained assiduously throughout the fall semester in preparation to compete in the Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NECCDC). The competition season started with a qualifier aiming to place the team for the regional event. Unfortunately, in spite of obtaining a qualifying score in the virtual qualifier, the team could not proceed to the regionals.
Wait… what happened?
Well, it was all Jonas’ fault! Don’t worry, Jonas is not one of the team members, but the snow storm that blasted our region on January 23, 2016. It was Jonas who forced these warriors to compete in their PJs from the comfort of their homes, rather than from their cyber den on the Pleasantville campus (aka Security Lab). We know, we know, the event was virtual, so why did this matter? Well, the game requires that the team be in one location, and their performance be observed by competition officials who ensure all rules are abided by.
Thanks a lot, Jonas!
What is CDCC?
For those not familiar with the event, CCDC is a highly regarded security competition with tiers at the state, regional, and national level. The competition challenges students to practice both their technical and business skills. Student teams are engaged in the process of securing and managing a small business network, which includes maintaining a set of critical services and responding to business requests (injects), all while defending against a “red team” attacking the network. Critical services include e-mail server, e-commerce site, DNS, etc. Examples of injects from this year’s competition include performing host vulnerability assessment and hardening, monitoring web site integrity, performing an assessment of external services, configuring NTP and a centralized logging service, and identifying and reporting on network attacks to name a few.
That sounds awesome, how do I join?
You’d be more than welcome to take part! Team training continues throughout the spring semester, primarily on weekends. The team meets in the Security Lab on the Pleasantville campus. Students interested in joining the team should reach out to Andreea Cotoranu at acotoranu@pace.edu – all skill levels are welcome!
And it’s all thanks to…
The Pace Cyber Team is supported by Dr. Li-Chiou Chen, Professor and Chair of the IT Department (WEST), and is coached by Professor Andreea Cotoranu and graduate assistant, Joseph Glasser.
