Cyber Member Spotlight — Luke Dutta

Learn more about ACM Cyber member Luke Dutta!

What’s your major? What drew you to this field?

I’m a Computer Science major. I think what really drew me into this field is the impact that software has on the community. I feel like with the internet software is able to expand to so many people at a rapid pace. The work that I do is impactful to the community at large.

How did you become interested in cybersecurity?

Honestly, learning about CTFs and wargames. Before learning of this, I thought that most ways of learning computer science skills feel boring, it’s either go to a class or watch a video. When I heard of CTFs, I was curious since it felt like such a great hobby to get into, learning something related to my major and fun. When I began doing CTFs, I started to learn the impact that cybersecurity has on the world, and all the different applications it has. Plus, acting like a hacker is always fun.

What are some cool cybersecurity related/other projects you’ve undertaken? Or have there been any fun CTFs you’ve participated in recently?

Last year I participated in sunshineCTF where I came across this strange cryptography challenge. All it was was a bunch of emojis and nothing else. It got me stumped for a while, but soon I realized that the emojis were arranged in similar ways and there were only a certain unique ones. Soon enough, I found the flag and was one of the first people to get it. I guess I didn’t first blood it, but I was happy that I got close to it.

What are your hobbies / what do you like to do in your free time?

One thing that I got into this year was cooking. I admit it, I was getting sick of dining hall food and needed to cook for myself. Thus, I learned to cook some basic dishes like scrambled eggs, pasta, and curry, and soon enough, I was getting into cooking. Also I started getting into coffee this year, ever since drinking really bad coffee from the dining halls. I bought myself a French Press and began making coffee of my own.

And finally, do you have any advice/something to say to the readers?

If you’re a freshman or sophomore in computer science, take some time to expand your breadth of computer science. There are so many wild and different fields within computer science, from theorists to embedded systems programmers to cybersecurity specialists. The wide ranging fields means there’s always something for everyone, you just have to go searching.