Mid-Atlantic CCDC

An Insider’s Look Into the 2012 MA CCDC

Casey — Thu, 17 May 2012 00:45:49 +0000

A story from Brad Bowers, who’s been on the Mid-Atlantic CCDC Red Team for the past 6 years.

2012 Speaker Symposium Videos Available

Casey — Thu, 03 May 2012 12:11:20 +0000

This was the first year of the CyberWatch Mid-Atlantic CCDC Speaker Symposium. The goal was to provide a space where college students, researchers, hackers, and practitioners could come together for one day to both present and participate in open discussions centered around various cybersecurity, policy, and research challenges in the various critical infrastructures. This year’s Symposium theme was Healthcare IT.

The Speaker Symposium was FREE and open to the public. Breakfast, lunch, and beverages were provided, as well as ample opportunity to network with those in attendance.

Speaker Lineup

The full speaker lineup and agenda is here.

Videos

Bill Anderson, Oculis Labs: “Causes of Data Breaches in Healthcare? Just Look Around”
Shari Lawrence Pfleeger, Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection, Dartmouth College: “Software in Medical Devices: A Look at Safety and Effectiveness“
Darren Lacey, Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Health Systems: “Security and Lots of Data“
Kevin G. Coleman, Technolytics Institute, “You Can’t Overestimate Hackers or Our Security Absurdity!“
Brad Bowers, “Wireless Data Exfiltration: Building and Using Low-Cost Signal Intelligence Tools for Penetration Testing“
Ryan Trost, General Dynamics: “The Underbelly of Healthcare Acquisitions“
Larry Pesce and Darren Wigley, PaulDotCom Enterprises: “MEDIC! Building and Rules of the 2012 CyberWatch Mid-Atlantic CCDC Badges“

Towson University Represents Mid-Atlantic CCDC Region in 2012 National CCDC

Casey — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:00:40 +0000

Best of luck to Towson University, winners of the 2012 Mid-Atlantic CCDC, in this weekend’s National CCDC. The 2012 NCCDC runs from April 20-22 and is hosted by the University of Texas at San Antonio Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS).

USA Today Article: Community College Programs Help Fill Skills Gap in U.S.

Casey — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:29:49 +0000

Read the USA Today article about how community colleges are helping to fill the cybersecurity skills gap nationally.

National Cyber League (NCL): Call For Pilot Season Team Participation

Casey — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:04:57 +0000

Do you like competing in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC)? Have you competed in a State or Regional CCDC and want to play more than once a year? Are you new to security competitions, but interested in gaining experience from the comfort of your house/apartment/dorm lab?
Beginning April 20^th, the National Cyber League (NCL) is launching its initial pilot season. The NCL provides a training ground for undergraduate and graduate students to hone their cyber security skills though weekly individual and team exercises.

The pilot will be a six-week “season” of virtual exercises and head-to-head competitions. 24 teams will be selected from schools that participate in the CCDC (and a few newbies). You will be able to learn and compete from your own school. No registration fees are required. You just need to committ to play throughout the season and provide feedback on the experience.
A virtual competition involves the same operating systems and network devices as a face-to-face competition, but the student competing only needs Internet access and a Web browser.
The NCL can be a training ground for CCDC teams by providing several opportunities to identify team deficiencies/inadequacies and benchmarking skills against competitors. Between rounds, team members can develop required skills and train to overcome deficiencies. Through each round, teams can determine whether development and training efforts are paying off.
Seed funding for the initial NCL pilot season is being provided by the National Science Foundation through the Advanced Technological Education Centers of Excellence.

24 teams will participate in the Spring 2012 pilot season:

Eight will be chosen by CyberWatch for the Eastern Division – Casey O’Brien (obrien.casey@gmail.com)
Eight will be chosen by CSSIA for the Midwest Division – Erich Spengler (Spengler@morainevalley.edu)
Eight will be chosen by CyberWatch West for the Western Division – Dr. Dan Manson (dmanson@csupomona.edu)

For each division, some teams will be chosen that have prior CCDC experience and some teams will be chosen that do not. Some of the schools will be community colleges and some will be four-year and graduate institutions. Teams consist of up to 12 members who must be current college students on a roster. No more than 8 members from the roster compete in any given event. Each team must have a current college faculty member/mentor as a coach. There will be a six week, virtual, regular season followed by a post-season competition between regional winners. The final two teams will compete head-to-head in an all-expense paid trip to Orlando, FL in June.

If you are interested, please contact the representative for your region above. We will be selecting teams between now and April 13. Teams will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

Towson University Wins 2012 CyberWatch Mid-Atlantic CCDC

Casey — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 01:19:00 +0000

Congratulations to the team from Towson University, winners of the 7th CyberWatch Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (2012).

Capitol College (MD), Howard Community College (MD), James Madison University (VA), Millersville University (PA), Radford University (VA), the University of Maryland Baltimore County (MD), and West Virginia University (WV) competed against Towson March 16-17, 2012 at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, MD with the winner earning a berth in the National CCDC April20-22,2012 in San Antonio, TX.

Finals standings:

1. Towson University
2. Millersville University
3. James Madison University/Radford University (tied for 3rd place)

Competition Broadcast Live

Casey — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 17:01:58 +0000

Can’t make it to the competition? Check out the action live on March 16-17, 2012 here.

2012 Speaker Symposium Lineup: Brad Bowers

Casey — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:06:10 +0000

Speaker: Brad Bowers
Title: “Wireless Data Exfiltration: Building and Using Low-Cost Signal Intelligence Tools for Penetration Testing”
Bio: Brad Bowers is an IT Security professional with over 10 years of Information Security experience working for the military and large corporations. Brad has worked in many of the Information Security disciplines, with a focus in Incident Response, System Forensics and Threat Intelligence. When not tinkering with computers or disassembling random electronic devices, Brad can be found presenting on the importance of Information Security and Threat Management. Brad holds several professional certifications and was a 2010 Gold medal recipient of an “Excellence in Government Service” award for collaboration on a project between Law Enforcement entities and the public sector.

Brad is currently the Security Operations Manager for a financial institution where he is responsible for the business’ Information Security practice including Threat Management, Incident Response and Security Engineering.

2012 Speaker Symposium Lineup: Dr. Peter Greene

Casey — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:00:56 +0000

Speaker: Dr. Peter Greene
Title: “Grand Challenges in Health Information Technology”
Bio: Dr. Peter Greene is the Chief Medical Officer, Associate Professor of Surgery, and Associate Dean for Emerging Technologies at the Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Greene’s research interests include: Information Technology advancement, clinical outcomes research, and ventricular assist devices.

2012 Speaker Symposium Lineup: Kevin G. Coleman

Casey — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:59:17 +0000

Speaker: Kevin G. Coleman
Title: “You Can’t Over Estimate Hackers Creativity or Our Security Absurdity!”
Bio: Kevin G. Coleman is a senior fellow at the Technolytics Institute with over two decades of experience addressing the most critical issues faced by business, government and industry. He has briefed two congressional commissions and a task force on national security threats from cyber space and has worked with our military and intelligence community on issues of cyber warfare and cyber intelligence, as well as publishing over 200 articles that provide unique insight into the complexities of cyber security and compliance. Mr. Coleman is an instructor with Cypherpath LLC.