Security and system administrators at any given corporation thwart computer breaches and security threats on a daily basis. They are the ones responsible for building and defending corporations' computer networks and systems against both internal and external attacks. An infiltration by a computer hacker can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost time and information.
"Today's network, system and security administrators are faced with many challenges ranging from limited resources to unreasonable business demands to determined attackers," says Daryl Johnson, professor of networking, security and systems administration at RIT. "A company's information infrastructure is limited by its budgeted resources and the vulnerability of providing services on the Internet. Those challenges are significant but can pale in comparison to the stress of fending off resolute attackers. This competition is designed to include as many of the choices and challenges that a network, system or security administrator might face in defending their corporate information infrastructure."
In the first phase of the competition, students will be given a list of customer requirements much as would be present for corporation. For example, the students will be required to put various services on their networks such as e-mail and Web servers. The students will have approximately 14 hours on Thursday to design and implement their networks.
The second portion of the contest on the morning of Friday will be the attack and defend portion in which the McAfee engineers will unleash a set of internal and external attacks against the students' networks.
The students will be scored throughout the various phases of the competition. Students will receive points if they are able to keep their networks running throughout the attacks, as well as if they are able to determine vulnerabilities and remediate potential security breaches on their own.
In the final phase of the competition, the students will perform a forensic analysis to assess damage to their systems, and a winning team will be determined.
Jason Koppe, a third-year applied networking and systems administration major in RIT's B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences participated in the security contest last year and will compete again this year.
"The competition gave us the opportunity to implement incredible cutting edge technology that helps defend networks from malicious attacks," says Koppe. "We gained an incredible amount of knowledge by participating in the build, defend, and analyze portions. We also learned a great deal directly from the McAfee engineers. These security experts taught us many cool concepts. The competition was truly invaluable because the best preparation for real-life situations is the practice of solving a business-critical problem in the heat of the moment."
Ten teams, comprised primarily of applied networking and systems administration students, will participate. Prizes will be awarded to the top three teams.
