19th annual competition trains the next generation of cybersecurity professionals amid current skills shortage
SAN ANTONIO (April 27, 2024) – University of Central Florida competed against nine other student-led teams to become National Champions in the 2024 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC), presented by the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). This year, over 2,100 competitors from 198 schools across the country participated in events across the country during the NCCDC season with the top 10 teams advancing to the National Championship held in San Antonio from April 25-27.
As one of the nation’s largest collegiate competitions of its kind, this year’s NCCDC tasked competitors with the scenario of managing, operating and defending the network infrastructure of a human resource outsourcing firm while responding to business tasks, customers, and fending off a group of live Red Team hackers.
“The scenario we developed for this elite group of students is very realistic,” said Dwayne Williams, Director of the NCCDC and associate director at the CIAS. “The primary challenge this year is securing large amounts of personally identifiable information across different industries and states, but also dealing with a company acquisition while being targeted by bad actors. These unique challenges and hands-on experiences help each of these teams prepare for the real-world scenarios they will face after graduation.”
The competition’s unique focus on operational aspects of managing and protecting a network infrastructure is designed to assess each student’s depth of understanding and operational competency. The NCCDC is more than just a competitive environment though, hundreds of volunteers work closely with participating competitors throughout the year to help develop their professional networks and provide mentorship.
“We are very thankful for the amazing support we’ve received from organizations nationwide as they continue to create opportunities to develop the experience and skillset that is needed to keep our nation secure,” added Williams. “Training the next generation of cyber professionals is critical and events like the NCCDC are helping to make that happen.”
As winners of the 2024 NCCDC, University of Central Florida brings home the coveted Alamo Cup trophy. This is the sixth year that the University of Central Florida has won the competition. Additionally, Cal Poly Pomona placed second and the University of Texas at Austin came in third place during this year’s competition.
See the 2023 winner announcement here. More information on the NCCDC, including how your organization or university can get involved in the competition, can be found at https://www.nationalccdc.org/.
About the National CCDC:
Hosted by the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security at The University of Texas at San Antonio, the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) system provides institutions with an information assurance or computer security curriculum a controlled, competitive environment to assess their student’s depth of understanding and operational competency in managing the challenges inherent in protecting a corporate network infrastructure and business information systems. For more information, visit NCCDC.org.
