BW Cybersecurity Team earns top spot in CCDC Ohio Qualifier

BW's CyberSec Team (left to right) advisor Kenneth Atchinson, Cameron Krivanek, Lauren Driscoll, Emily Timko, Jacob Jolley, Josh Bell, Josh Neubecker, Chris Midkiff and Ian Walton

Payoff for hard work

The BW CyberSec Team was one of seven teams to compete in the CCDC Ohio Qualifier. Through problem-solving, troubleshooting and teamwork, they out-performed second-place University of Akron and third-place The Ohio State University, claiming first place in the competition and earning their spot in the Midwest Regional CCDC Competition, March 13-14, 2020. A win would qualify them for one of ten spots available and a second chance to compete for the National CCDC title in April.

Fall success springboard

BW's CyberSec Team (left to right) John Kelly, Jacob Jolley, Joshua Neubecker, Ian Walton, Meredith Kasper, Chris Midkiff, advisor Kenneth Atchinson and a CyberForce official at the U.S. Department of Energy CyberForce Competition

Out of 106 teams to compete nationwide, the BW CyberSec Team won the regional first-place spot in the U.S. Department of Energy CyberForce Competition. The DOE's competition prepares students to defend industrial control systems within a realistic cyber-physical infrastructure. Teams are tasked with defending one energy system - a solar generation facility, electric substation, data center or manufacturing plant - while communicating with the other three to monitor and maintain the integrity of the system as a whole.

The University at Buffalo Lockdown Cybersecurity Competition, a "hack and defend" cyber defense event, places a team of student defenders against a team of student hackers. While very similar to the CCDC, this event focuses on learning how well the defender team protected the enterprise-like systems from the hacker team attacks. The BW team of Lauren Driscoll '22, Ian Walton '20, Chris Midkiff '20, Meredith Kasper '20 and Joshua Neubecker '20 took first place in the event.

Successful leadership builds great teams

BW's Kenneth Atchinson, associate professor and advisor to the BW CyberSec Team, helps students hone their skills against cybersecurity competitors. In recognition of his significant and impactful contribution of talent, time, product and process in the past year, he was awarded the 2019 Information Security Summit Sentry of the Year Award for Security Industry Impact and Innovation.