ISCAP Proceedings: Abstract Presentation
Building Competitive Cyber Teams
Tyler Flaagan
Dakota State University
Abstract
Cyber competitions have grown in popularity significantly in recent years. This growth has led to an increased number of teams and their sophistication. Cyber competitions have evolved from event styles such as attack/defense and capture the flag jeopardy-style into various formats, including red versus blue and hybrid styles that mimic real-world environments. These competitions have started to creep into academia, namely the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition and the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Outside of academia events have evolved into national level events with examples such as the United States Cyber Games program competing in the International Cybersecurity Challenge. Teams participating in these events often spend a significant amount of time preparing by developing individual and team skills. The participants get the chance to apply their knowledge learned in and out of the classroom while enjoying the spirit of competition. Outside of the traditional lecture format, there are a variety of methods that can help develop these teams to be successful. Developing mock competition environments is a common strategy to help participants practice their technical measures in the environment as a whole. Oftentimes, these environments can be challenging to build or host and setting them up can be time-consuming. To solve this problem, consider breaking up the environments into individual pieces or utilizing open-source solutions. Both options will be explored further. Many competitions now also build on soft skills for students, such as communication, teamwork, and leadership, among others. These require their own dedicated time to practice with team-building exercises and other collaborative events. The development of these individuals and teams has not gone unnoticed in the professional landscape, with the outcome of some competitions leading to internships and even jobs.