Capitol College Cyber Teams Compete at Finals of MDC3 Competition

Capitol College sent two teams of students to the final round of the second annual Maryland Cyber Challenge & Competition (MDC3) on Oct. 17. The regional competition was held at the Baltimore Convention Center and featured teams from across the Mid-Atlantic region.

 

“MDC3 was a great team activity because it had so many different things that you could be working on at one time,” student Annie Pope said.  “One person of the team could be doing research on a command, while another could be actively attacking a system for access to the command line and then executing said command.”

 

During the competition, teams faced a variety of real-world scenarios that tested their cybersecurity knowledge and critical thinking skills. The competition was set up in a “Capture the Flag/King of the Hill” style format, where students were tasked with infiltrating other teams’ computer systems, while protecting their own, at the same time.

 

The two Capitol teams qualified for the finals of the MDC3 after placing well in two separate qualifying rounds that featured various information assurance tasks. Team “Partly Cloudy” consisted of Austin Merson, Marc Fruchtbaum, Carter Waxman, Jeremy Hedges, Mark Evans and Joey Cusimano. Students Annie Pope, Aaron Knab, Austin Richards, Chris Thompson, Efren Torrez and Brian Wilhide comprised “Squad Apope." Only eight teams qualified for the finals at the Baltimore Convention Center.

 

“The Capitol College community should be extremely proud of our cyber competition teams,” said Dr. Jason Pittman, assistant professor in the doctoral program. “These students have persevered through weekly practices, multiple qualifying rounds of competition, as well as normal college and life activities to reach a high level of performance. I could not be happier with the final results of MDC3 and the pervious NYU Poly CSAW competition.”

 

Capitol’s cyber team members hone their skills in the college’s Cyber Battle Lab where students simulate, detect, analyze and defeat cyber threats and hacker attacks. The hands-on education that students receive in the CBL is perfect for students looking for careers in the cybersecurity field. Many of the problems that students solve in the lab are common in industry, and prepare students for engaging careers after graduation. Capitol College offers a bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree in information assurance.

 

“The competition was fun because if gave everyone a rush when we took control of a box only to hear other teams in distress over losing it,” student Jeremy Hedges said. “The competitive edge, being able to play in an environment that we have never used before and overall just being in good company, with people we've trained with for weeks, all were the highlighted aspects of the competition.”

 

MDC3 is the largest cybersecurity challenge of its kind in the state of Maryland. Scholarships of $5,000 were awarded to each student on the first place team, while $2,000 scholarships were given to those members of the second place team. MDC3 features competitions for high school teams, college teams and professional teams.