IT students take top honors in Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition state qualifier

Information technology students from Waukesha County Technical College competed against teams from around the state and took home top honors at the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) Wisconsin Qualifier Competition Feb. 2 at Northwestern Mutual Cream City Labs.

The WCTC student team – including Robert Stone (team captain), Michael Nault, Zachary Stoltenburg, Casimir Laska, Elijah Ligrow, Nicholas Mautner, Lucas Hasby – was challenged with defending their networks throughout the day while completing various projects and tasks. Serving as coach, observer and local judge were instructors Mark Krzyszkowski, D.J. Vogel and Jeremy Bauer, respectively.

The hackers defaced websites, placed ransomware on machines, requested team members to sing a song to regain control of machines and delivered a “bomb” to diffuse. This competition is designed to emulate at least one year of on-the-job security work in one day.

The WCTC team now advances to the Erich J. Spengler Midwest Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition March 15-16 at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Ill. The WCTC students will compete against top teams from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota and Missouri, with the hope of advancing to the national competition in April. This is the second year WCTC has taken first in the CCDC state event!

WCTC is proud to hold a prestigious designation - from the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD), a joint program sponsored by the National Security Agency (NSA) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – as a Center of Academic Excellence-Two Year Education (CAE2Y).