UMBC wins the 2017 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) was recently named champion of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC), defeating nine other universities in a simulated cyber attack scenario.

Participants were tasked with securing a multi-site retail corporation with 160 employees, inventory sales, point-of-sale systems, and related retail systems.

“The NCCDC program brings academia, government and industry together in a unique way,” NCCDC Director Dwayne Williams said. “Everyone recognizes we need to find and train more cyber professionals and these competitions absolutely help to meet that need.”

More than 230 colleges and universities participants in regional competitions leading up to the national championship.

Participants in the competition included the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, DePaul University, Montana Tech, the Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Washington, Brigham Young University (BYU), the University of South Alabama, the University of Tulsa, and California State University Northridge. The University of Tulsa and BYU finished in second and third, respectively.

Raytheon Company, who served as the competition’s title sponsor, will bring the winning team from UMBC to Washington, D.C. for a tour of the nation’s top cybersecurity and research sites.

Additional sponsors for the competition included Accenture Security, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Central Intelligence Agency, Boeing, and the National Security Agency.