CybersecurityWinners announced in U.S. Cyber Challenge Western regional competition
Angela Rey, Lee Christensen, and Vincent Venem were on the winning team for the 2014 U.S. Cyber Challenge (USCC) Western Regional “Capture the Flag” competition. The seventy participants were selected based in part on their scores from Cyber Quests, an online competition offered through the USCC in April that drew more than 1,600 participants from almost 700 schools nationwide.
U.S. Cyber Challenge (USCC) and San Jose State University (SJSU) announced the winners of the Western Regional “Capture the Flag” competition. Camp participants Angela Rey, Lee Christensen, and Vincent Venem were on the winning team for the 2014 camp. The competition was held 11-15 August at San Jose State University in the Student Union Ballroom, and was held in conjunction with the 2014 U.S. Cyber Challenge Western Regional Cyber Camp.
“The value of U.S. Cyber Challenge is to inspire individuals to pursue careers and expose them to the vast opportunities that exist,” said Robin “Montana” Williams of DHS. “The United States is facing a critical supply and demand problem where demand significantly outweighs the supply. Therefore, the goal, and the mission of U.S. Cyber Challenge is to expand the pipeline of cybersecurity professionals.”
The weeklong camp program included in-depth workshops on a range of topics such as reverse engineering malware, writing exploits, tactical attacks, and penetration testing, taught by academics, SANS Institute senior instructors, and other cybersecurity experts.
The winning team will receive scholarships from the Council on CyberSecurity.
The camp is supported in part through sponsorships by (ISC)2 Foundation, SE Solutions, iSight Partners, Threat Space, NIC, CyberAces, the Association for Federal Information Resources Management (AFFIRM), Avue Technologies, SANS Institute, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, Department of Homeland Security, the Federal CIO Council, Cyber Ninjas, Kearney & Company, Deep Water Point, The Coleman Group, VMD, Valente & Associations, AMBIT, REI Systems, VISA and Accenture. Local sponsors for the western regional camp include Facebook, Kaiser Permanente, PG&E, and the STC-TRUST.
More than seventy camp participants attended the Western Regional camp. Attendees to the invitation-only camps were selected based in part on their scores from Cyber Quests, an online competition offered through the USCC in April that drew more than 1,600 participants from almost 700 schools nationwide.
The 2014 Cyber Summer Camp Series features two national weeklong camps and two statewide camps. The camps are part of several initiatives underway through USCC, a national campaign focused on identifying and developing cybersecurity talent to meet the country’s critical cybersecurity workforce needs.
