Eight Towson University students gained real-world experience defending a commuter rail system’s IT infrastructure from cyber attacks in the 2015 Mid-Atlantic Cyber Defense Competition (MACCDC) from March 25-28.
Jarrett Booz, Matthew Carr, Cate Hammond, Felix Guerrero, Luke Moorman, Jacob Oakley, Donald Propst and Mattew Verrette finished third in the annual competition presented by National CyberWatch Center.
Ten teams competed over three days to safeguard the system’s infrastructure and keep the rail lines running for a chance to represent the region at the national finals in San Antonio, Texas in late April.
According to the competition’s website, the MACCDC gives college and university students a chance “to test their cybersecurity knowledge and skills in a competitive environment.” Teams located in the same building and have “physically identical computer configurations” at the beginning of the competition. They then have to keep the services up and running through sustained cyber attacks as well as “periodic injects” that force the students to deal with typical business activities IT workers also have to deal with on a regular basis.
