CYBER DEFENSE COMPETITION: A TALE OF TWO TEAMS*

Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions have recently grown in popularity as a means of providing real-world experiences to students learning computer security at the college level. Preparation and training for these competitions focuses students on essential skills needed to defend networks against real threats and better prepares them for the problems and conditions they may encounter outside the protection of university run labs. This paper highlights the benefits of Cyber Defense Competitions and documents the experiences of two teams that trained and competed in the Northwest regional cyber defense competition. Both teams benefited from participating in the competition with students expressing positive learning experiences. Recommendations for other schools that may be interested in competing or setting up in-house cyber defense exercises will be presented. 1