DOE Cyber Defense Competition attracts nearly 200 students
State Office of CyberSecurity staff participate in event
Almost 200 students from across the country this past weekend competed in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Cyber Defense Competition, which simulated cyber attacks on computer networks of natural gas companies.
The third annual competition was hosted at three national labs this year: the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.
For this competition, students on “Blue Teams” worked together to protect natural gas company computer networks from cyber attacks. “Red Teams,” composed of cyber security professionals from different organizations, including the Washington State Office of CyberSecurity, OCS, tried to overcome the students’ defenses.
Aaron Brown and Troy House, from OCS, both attended and worked on a Red Team targeting the students’ networks.
Brown said it’s a great experience for the cybersecurity professionals as well as the students, noting he was able to collaborate with security staff from several energy and research organizations. “I love working with different people in the industry,” Brown said, “plus it’s really fun trying to hack into a network.”
House said he felt students got a lot out of the event. “It really helps to provide a tangible example of what’s going on in the real world,” he said, noting the competition provided a realistic simulation of what could happen in an actual cyber attack. “You are scrambling a lot.”
In this competition, the students not only had to design their networks, but also had to program a physical device to function at regularly scheduled intervals to simulate production of natural gas. If the pump stopped working, or if the lights on miniature buildings went out, students knew their system was compromised.
Unfilled cybersecurity careers will reach over 1.5 million by 2019. With the ever-increasing amount of technology placed on the internet, security is a high priority. Through the cyber defense competitions, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Washington State Office of CyberSecurity and other organizations, are working to increase interest in cyber security careers.
