PRCCDC - Enroll Now, Compete in March!

The term “talent scout” is usually connected with sports and athletes.  But, collegiate cyber competitions are also frequented by talent scouts. 

Imagine you’re a student who’s just finished a successful competition. You're still buzzed about defending the network against the Red Team and earning the highest score. Teammates are toasting each other with cans of Red Bull and exchanging high-fives. Then a judge pulls you aside, hands you a business card, and says,  

“Please send me your resume and let’s set up an interview.” 

 

Regional CCDC Competitions 

Cyber competitions come in two basic categories: challenge-based or interactive. Challenge-based activities can be done solo or as a team. But interactive games simulate real-world scenarios, testing your ability to perform technically and professionally while under attack. 

The Collegiate Cyber Defense Competitions (CCDC) immerse students in these real-life scenarios that can stretch over a two day period. The winners of regional competitions are invited to the nationals. The local region for Washington, Idaho, and Oregon is the Pacific Rim CCDC (PRCCDC).  Both University and Community College students may compete. 

The 2025 regional competition will take place at South Puget Sound Community College in Olympia, March 21 and 22.

Overview 

Teams of students converge as a Blue Team assigned with defense responsibilities. They’re introduced to a virtualized infrastructure that mimics an actual business network. The nature of the business might be something like “Azcatraz,” the Harry Potter themed prison where bad wizards are locked up. In that particular scenario there was one network for personnel and another for prisoners.  

Students are given a few minutes to familiarize themselves with the infrastructure and start doing integrity checks and vulnerability scans. Secret weaknesses have been deliberately embedded by event organizers. 

Almost immediately, the Red Team launches an attack. “Prisoners” and outside hackers try to penetrate the corporate network. These hackers are volunteers from private industry and government. They are physically in attendance at the competition, observing student performance, and adaptively changing the attack. 

While the attack is underway, the Orange Team inserts business requirements such as, “Five employees were just laid off. Delete their accounts.”  Or “The boss is on a business trip. Create a VPN for him.” Students are expected to keep the business running as much as possible while under attack. 

A Red Teamer might try to enter the “business facility” and students will be expected to check their badges for security. Sometimes attackers telephone students to see if they’ll fall for a social engineering trick. 

Midway through, students must write and present a situation report to “Business Executives”. Students are judged on professionalism, communication skills, and accuracy. Remaining cool under pressure earns points. 

During the event, students can try to regain points by describing how they detected an attack or intrusion and then how they mitigated the attack. Then judges discuss and evaluate the performance of teams and a winner is declared. 

Benefits 

Professionals who volunteer gain: 

• Experience to include on: Resume, online portfolio, LinkedIn
• Professional networking opportunities
• First pick of emerging talent
• Potential reimbursement from their employer for volunteer work

Students who compete gain: 

• Invaluable “real-world” experience
• Professional networking opportunities
• Achievements to include on resume, LinkedIn, and online portfolio
• Visibility to potential talent scouts
• Access to job fairs that usually follow the event
• Potential to compete at the national level

Sponsors who contribute financially gain: 

• Opportunity to market their company or product
• First pick of emerging talent (resumes / CVs of participants provided)
• Enrichment of the next generation of cyber defenders

Educators who join gain: 

• Opportunities to advance the career prospects of their students
• Experience in building, proctoring, and judging competitions
• Marketing opportunities for their college cyber program
• Increased future enrollments

How to get involved 

Warm-up event 

To see if you’re ready for the regionals, join a virtualized warm-up event on November 15 and 16. Each school can register as many teams as they want, with a maximum of 5 students on each team.  

This is a Capture the Flag (CTF) event and extends from 5PM Friday to 5PM Saturday so that people with a variety of schedules can jump in. Challenges involve cryptography, steganography, hardware vulnerabilities, stealing data or solving a mystery. Challenges are ranked from easy to medium. 

Join the PRCCDC 

Registration opened for the PRCCDC in mid-October; it closes Jan 24, 2025. 

The Qualifier event is on February 15. Competition days are March 21 and 22, 2025 followed by a job fair on March 23. 

Teams must register at the national level as well as the regional. 

With a contribution as low as $500 to $1000, sponsors get a table at the job fair and permission to post marketing material about their company or product. Large corporations and government agencies are involved, but small to medium-sized businesses are eagerly welcomed. 

To volunteer, sponsor, or register your team, visit the CCDC national website at this link: https://nccdc.org/ 

For more details, email Amelia Philips at: amelia.phillips@ucumberlands.edu  

About PRCCDC 

The Pacific Rim Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition is operated by a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation – the PNW Cyber Challenge Games. It has received state grant funds under the Washington Jobs Initiative, governed by the Employment Security Division (ESD) specifically to place students in jobs.  PNW Cyber Challenge Games is looking for people interested in serving on the board and other committees. 

Competitors receive job placement assistance from the tech partners involved with Computing for All. Students agree to be contacted later and surveyed about their career success in the cybersecurity workforce. 

The virtual infrastructure is hosted on Cyber Range Poulsbo, a free open educational resource for WA students and educators.