Cybersecurity, Computer Science Majors Compete in CyberSEED competition

Two teams of six students from St. John Fisher University took part in the 2023 CyberSEED cybersecurity competition, hosted annually by the University of Connecticut. Held on Saturday, March 4, the Fisher teams competed against more than 180 teams from schools across the country, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Maryland, Northeastern University, and more.

During the competition, students are introduced to a variety of cybersecurity challenges, including a set of flags that allow competitors to track their performance against other teams. The competition tests a breadth of skills, with this year’s challenges focused on reverse engineering, web application security, network traffic analysis, cryptography, and some basic scripted programming capabilities as well as a facility with network monitoring and forensics tools.

Teams are graded on the percentage of challenges completed, as well as the accuracy of their attempts to solve each challenge. Visiting Assistant Professor Alec Berenbaum is the instructor that coordinates each year’s participants from the University.

At last year’s competition, Fisher placed near the top third of teams, and much of the success from 2022 carried over to this year’s event. Both of Fisher’s teams placed in the top half of participants; students showed particular acumen in challenges focused on password cracking, cryptography, and reverse engineering.

This article was written by Tyler Cole ’23, a cybersecurity major and PR Writing Intern in the Office of Marketing and Communications.