Reprinted from Dakota State University
Knowing your enemy is just as important in cyber war as in other battles. A team of Dakota State University cyber students recently proved they know the mind of cyber enemies by winning first place in the Central Region Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition (CPTC).
Hackers are the enemy in cyber security, those sometimes referred to as the “black hats.” To help university cyber security students understand hackers, they practice black hat offense in addition to white hat defense. This is called pen testing, or penetration testing.
“When students play the role of a hacker, they are put in the mindset of a potential black hat operative,” said Dr. Austin O’Brien, assistant professor in the Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences.
By playing the role of a black hat, “you can better understand how an attacker may think,” said Logan Sampson, a Dakota State University cyber operations major, so that when working as a white hat, “you know what to expect when you are defending your network against the very same kinds of hackers.”
Sampson is the captain of the CPTC team who participated in the CPTC, which was held at Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Missouri; other team members include cyber operations majors Dylan Johnson, Jacob Williams and Brian Vertullo. This is the first time a Dakota State team has participated in the CPTC. The win qualifies them for the national CPTC competition in Rochester, New York, on November 3 – 5. Hosts are the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Computing Security, RIT’s computing security department.
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