Congratulations to the University of Central Florida Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team (C3) for their recent win of the 2021 Department of Energy CyberForce Competition! The UCF team finished in 1st place out of 120 teams (over 700 students) from colleges and universities across the country. Members of this year’s team include Team Captain Jeffrey DiVincent (JR-CS), Cameron Whitehead (MS-DF), Caitlin Whitehead (MS-DF), Aiden Durand (SR-CS), Christopher Fischer (JR-CS), and Matthew McKeever (SO-CS). This win marks UCF’s seventh Cybersecurity National Championship since 2014.
The CyberForce Competition is a large, high-profile cyber competition that is unique from others in that it requires student teams to build, secure, and defense a oil pipeline and drilling companies, electric companies, water treatment plants, etc. The 2021 scenario involved designing, securing, and defending the network for an energy company operating a hydropower dam. Kandy Phan, Sandia National Laboratory Red Team Director, complimented UCF’s performance and teamwork, saying that they “baselined their system really well and they read the rules…[UCF] had good documentation and they knew how their system system worked…if this was a real system, their (UCF’s) defense would have kept their OT systems working.”
To watch the competition recap interview with UCF Team Captain Jeffery DiVincent, click here!