SUU Cybersecurity Club Places 3rd in National Competition
Published: October 18, 2023 | Author: Abbie Cochrane | Read Time: 2 minutes
Southern Utah University’s Cybersecurity Club took third place at the national Hack the Building 2.0 competition, beating Loyola University of Chicago, Columbus State University, Cedarville University, Liberty University and their cybersecurity rival, BYU. This victory has rocketed the team to a new level of collegiate excellence in the field and in academia.
The representative team from SUU included students Ethan Hunt, Turner Bushell, Austin Prince, Hayden Robbins and Cole Lucas. They represent some of the best that SUU Cybersecurity has to offer.
SUU cybersecurity professor Glen Sagers, professor of Computer Science and Cybersecurity, attended the competition with the team. “This national victory highlights the strength and dedication of SUU’s students in expanding beyond the many skills taught in the classroom, and shows their adaptability and composure under the strain of constant attacks in a simulated environment and real life.
This year’s Hack the Building 2.0 competition, sponsored by the NSA and CISA, was titled “Hack the Hospital,” in which red (offensive hacking) and blue (defensive) teams went head to head in a simulated battle for cybersecurity in a fictional hospital. The blue teams were tasked with keeping the intruders out of a hospital environment containing medical records, SCADA systems that controlled air conditioning and water treatment and medical devices such as infusion pumps instead of standard PCs.
Turner Bushell, a junior majoring in Cybersecurity and minoring in theater, offered his comments about the experience, “I learned a ton of new things about new tools in the cybersecurity field. There were tons of vendors at the event and I really enjoyed seeing all the new tools people were implementing. It was also fun just in the spirit of competition, and getting to compete.
Assigned to the defensive side, the SUU team spent four days fending off incoming attacks, and was the only blue team to place in the competition, making them the defensive champions. Even more impressive, the team’s attackers consisted of cybersecurity experts not just from other universities, but people tasked with the nation’s security, such as the CISA, US Cyber Command, the US Army and the New York Army National Guard.
“My favorite part was touring Fort Meade [NSA headquarters] on the last day,” said Hayden Robbins, a junior majoring in Cybersecurity and minoring in Computer Science. “I’ve done an internship at Hill Air Force Base and I’ve thought about going into the Department of Defense, and it was really cool to see how what I’m studying can be used in such an important way.”
Despite having already placed in regional competitions for the last several years, this national triumph is a testament to the exemplary students and the professional quality of the cybersecurity program at SUU.
Bushell and Robbins offer their thanks to Dr. Sagers, professor Gary Wallace, the SUU Department of Computer Science and Cybersecurity, their fellow teammates and club participants, and the NSA and CISA.
Learn more about SUU Cybersecurity and the College of Engineering and Computational Sciences.
Tags: Computer Science College of Engineering and Computational Sciences CurStu Cyber Security Engineering