{"id":128083,"date":"2022-04-21T11:09:21","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T15:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=128083"},"modified":"2025-06-25T14:47:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T18:47:38","slug":"national-victory-for-ucf-in-nsa-sponsored-pilot-cybersecurity-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/national-victory-for-ucf-in-nsa-sponsored-pilot-cybersecurity-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"UCF Earns National Victory in NSA-Sponsored Pilot Cybersecurity Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team at the 海角直播 added another national title to its winning record when it achieved the highest score among 22 colleges and universities competing in a new cyber competition sponsored by the National Security Agency.<\/p>\n
The inaugural NSA cybersecurity exercise for institutions designated as NSA Centers of Academic Excellence (NCAE-C) in Cybersecurity \u2014 held virtually April 11-13 \u2014 tested students\u2019 skills and knowledge in five different areas of cybersecurity expertise.<\/p>\n
The contest, called the 2022 CAE-NCX, is an advanced-level competition. As a NCAE-C institution, UCF was one of 375 designated institutions eligible to compete in the three-day event.<\/p>\n
Ten UCF students, many of whom are members of UCF\u2019s highly-decorated Cybersecurity Competition Team, competed in five modules \u2014 Cryptography, Malware Analysis, Policy, Secure Software Development, and Cyber Combat Exercise \u2014 winning the Cryptography, Policy and the Cyber Combat Exercise modules. The Cyber Combat Exercise was an eight-hour competition that counted for 40% of UCF\u2019s overall score.<\/p>\n
Team Coach Tom Nedorost, a faculty member of the UCF College of Engineering and Computer Science, strategically assembled each module\u2019s four-member team based on students\u2019 individual strengths and skills, with some students competing in multiple modules.<\/p>\n
2022 CAE-NCX modules and UCF student competitors were:<\/p>\n
“I knew UCF’s team had all the technical skills necessary to success in the CAE-NCX,” Nedorost says. “I was most concerned about the Policy module, which required extensive knowledge of public policy, law and government bureaucracy, along with professional writing and the presentation skills expected of television news anchor. In collaboration with UCF’s Intelligence and National Security Center of Academic Excellence at UCF, we assembled an interdisciplinary team for the Policy module which resulted in a win.”<\/p>\n
Nedorost credits Bruce Caulkins \u201986 \u201995MS \u201905PhD<\/strong>, director, UCF\u2019s Modeling and Simulation of Behavioral Cybersecurity program, for mentoring the Policy module team.<\/p>\n Cameron Whitehead, who competed in four of the five modules, attributed UCF\u2019s module victories to how well his teammates quickly adapted to different challenges and communicated strategies effectively.<\/p>\n \u201cOne personal highlight was in the Cyber Combat module,\u201d Whitehead says. \u201cIt required us to attack more than 100 different computers that were being defended by other university teams as well as to defend our own machines from all the other teams. This required us to pivot from focusing on small targeted attacks to finding techniques to quickly attack dozens of computers at once. By the end of the module, UCF had hacked a majority of the machines being defended by others, and in many cases, had entirely taken control of those machines from their original owners.\u201d<\/p>\n Competitions like these give students real-world training in safeguarding the nation\u2019s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks that are growing more frequent, damaging and costly. To help meet the demand for cybersecurity professionals now and in the future, UCF\u00a0launched a new master\u2019s degree in cyber security and privacy\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n Since 2013, UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team has consistently won or placed in the top-three in national cyber competitions that include the Department of Energy\u2019s CyberForce Competition (UCF won in 2021 and 2018), and Raytheon\u2019s National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (UCF won in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2021).<\/p>\n