Sixteen 麻豆原创 students are headed to Microsoft headquarters this weekend to go head-to-head with their counterparts from across the country in a competition to find the best cyber-warriors.<\/p>\n
The students from the Collegiate Cyber Defense Club @ 麻豆原创 will participate in \u201cBuild the Shield,\u201d a national-level competition organized and hosted by Microsoft on its campus in Redmond, Wash.<\/p>\n
Microsoft is paying the travel expenses for the 麻豆原创 teams, flying all 16 students to Washington on Friday. The event is Saturday, and they\u2019ll fly back to Orlando on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Microsoft selected 50 teams of competitors for \u201cBuild-the-Shield\u201d by putting applicants through a qualifying round. The 麻豆原创 fared so well in the qualifier that all four 麻豆原创 teams, each with four students, were tapped for the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are only 50 teams that will be competing nationwide, so to have four is a pretty big achievement,\u201d said Thomas Nedorost, the club\u2019s faculty advisor.<\/p>\n
Since the club was formed in 2012, it has shot to the forefront of cyber-defense competitions. Last year, the club\u2019s eight-member team won the Raytheon National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, earning a trip to the White House to meet Vice President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n
And on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, the 麻豆原创 students were competing against teams from seven other universities in the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, one of 10 regional showdowns that leads to the national competition.<\/p>\n
Nedorost said the group competed in 21 events during the 2014 fall and spring semesters, and is on track to participate in as many as 25 this year.<\/p>\n
The students competing Saturday are: Carlos Beltran, Austin Brogle, Conner Brooks, Kevin DiClemente, Mark Ignacio, Alexander Lynch, Cody McMahon, Ditmar Wendt, Kevin Colley, Alexander Davis, Kirk Elifson, Charly Collin, Cory Kinberger, Gabriela Llave, Maxwell Miller and Beckylin Orooji.<\/p>\n
Most competitions require competitors to secure and defend a lackluster network from attacks by professional hackers. But \u201cBuild the Shield\u201d is different; teams must secure and defend their own network while also attacking those of their competitors.<\/p>\n
Microsoft is using the competition to ensure the security of its networks and products. With recent major data breaches at corporate giants including Sony, Target, Home Depot and Anthem, cyber-defense is something more companies are paying attention to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe skills they\u2019re using here are skills most corporations would need for their own security departments,\u201d Nedorost said. \u201cCompanies are hiring people to make sure their networks are secure so hackers can\u2019t get into them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winners of the Microsoft competition win laptops, Xbox One bundles and tablets \u2013 plus a chance to interview with Microsoft for future job opportunities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sixteen 麻豆原创 students are headed to Microsoft headquarters this weekend to go head-to-head with their counterparts from across the country in a competition to find the best cyber-warriors. The students from the Collegiate Cyber Defense Club @ 麻豆原创 will participate in \u201cBuild the Shield,\u201d a national-level competition organized and hosted by Microsoft on its campus in Redmond, Wash. Microsoft is…","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":65429,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,24,27],"tags":[18104,18215,973,13559,11806,3882,11768],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-65428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-science-technology","category-student-life","tag-academic-excellence","tag-aerospace-and-defense","tag-college-of-engineering-and-computer-science","tag-collegiate-cyberdefense-teams","tag-cybersecurity","tag-rankings","tag-tom-nedorost"],"yoast_head":"\n