UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Competitive Cyber Security Organization (CCSO) placed third at the Global Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition. The event was held Jan. 18-20 at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York.
“This is CCSO's best showing in the 10 years of this competition series,” said Nick Giacobe, associate teaching professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology and CCSO adviser. “The team qualified for the final round with a wildcard spot based on our performance at the regional competition last October. Overall, we were one of just 12 teams selected from a total of 62 teams from around the world.”
This final round provided students with two days of authorized hacking into their customer's network, with the goal of reporting the security vulnerabilities they were able to exploit. One focus of this year's three-day event was soft skills, working with customers to improve their security posture. The team assessed their customer's infrastructure, tested their findings, submitted a 100-page report and did a 10-minute c-suite-level presentation.
They received the competition’s Best Presentation award for their formal executive brief. Bob Kalka, global cybersecurity lead at IBM, and Brian King, security analyst at Black Hills Information Security, served as judges.
The CCSO competitors included current students and recent graduates from the College of IST’s cybersecurity program: Jenna Fox, Liam Geyer, Asa Reynolds, Robert Roderick, Jonathan Skeete and Maguire Younes. Several of the team members have secured penetration testing positions as interns and post-graduation jobs.
“This is the first time CCSO has ever placed this high in the competition’s history, and it’s an honor to have been part of such an incredible achievement,” Younes said. “The competition pushed our skills to the limit and highlighted the power of teamwork. Here’s to continuing to learn, grow and represent Penn State on the global stage!"