by hahnakane@gmail.com
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UCF Wins NCCDC!

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Congratulations to the defending champions, the University of Central Florida, for winning the 10th Annual National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) in San Antonio.

Founded in 2005 by the University of Texas San Antonio's Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security, NCCDC is a cyber defense competition that presents students with the opportunity to defend networks that are modeled after those that support our economic and national security.  To understand how to protect a network, it’s important to have a solid understanding of its vulnerabilities and how adversaries can break into it.

Students found themselves in the scenario of serving as the new IT staff of a small electrical utility company, which is vulnerable to threats. So, the students were judged against how well they kept their networks up and running to fulfill business need while responding to cyber incidents.

Raytheon, the presenting sponsor of NCCDC, defends the world’s most critical networks from the most sophisticated threats; therefore, partnering with the nation's largest collegiate cyber defense competition was a natural fit for us. The competition enables college students are able to develop real-world skills that are under-represented in today's cyber workforce–skills highly sought after in today's job market. Since these students are “battle-tested”, Raytheon has hired former NCCDC competitors; furthermore, we're excited to see more college students across the country participating in the competition.

According to a report released by Raytheon, 66% of organizations are in need of more knowledgeable and experienced information security professionals. Our nation is in dire need of cyber talent it can depend on as our lives become more interconnected with the Internet. So, we need stronger educational cyber programs that will help fulfill this need. NCCDC is helping to provide that talent.