National Cyber League: Call for Pilot Season Team Participation

The National Cyber League (NCL)

Where Cyber Security is a Passion

Call For Pilot Season Team Participation

Do you like playing in the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC)?  Have you competed in a State or Regional CCDC and want to play more than once a year?  Are you new to security competitions but interested in gaining experience from where you are?  

Beginning April 20^th, the National Cyber League (NCL – www.nationalcyberleague.org) is launching its initial pilot season.   The NCL provides a training ground for undergraduate and graduate students to hone their cyber security skills though weekly individual and team exercises.  

The pilot will be a six-week “season” of virtual exercises and head-to-head competitions.   We will select 24 teams from schools that participate in CCDC (and a few newbies).   You will be able to learn and compete from your own school.   No registration fees are needed.    We just need a commitment to play through the season and provide feedback on the experience. 

A virtual competition involves the same operating systems and network devices as a physical competition, but the student competing only needs Internet access and a Web browser.

The NCL can be a training ground for CCDC teams by providing several opportunities to identify team deficiencies/inadequacies and benchmarking skills against competitors.  Between rounds, team members can develop required skills and train to overcome deficiencies.  Through each round, teams can determine whether development and training efforts are paying off.

Seed funding for the initial NCL pilot season is being provided by the National Science Foundation through the Advanced Technological Education Centers of Excellence.

24 teams will participate in the Spring 2012 pilot season: 

  Eight will be chosen by CyberWatch for the Eastern Division

o   Casey O’Brien (obrien.casey@gmail.com)

·         Eight will be chosen by CSSIA for the Midwest Division.  

o   Erich Spengler (Spengler@morainevalley.edu)

·         Eight will be chosen by CyberWatch West for the Western Division

o   Dr. Dan Manson (dmanson@csupomona.edu).  

For each division, some teams will be chosen that have prior CCDC experience and some teams will be chosen that do not.  Some of the schools will be community colleges and some will be four-year and graduate institutions.  Teams consist of up to 12 members who must be current college students on a roster.  No more than 8 members from the roster compete in any given event.  Each team must have a current college faculty member as coach.  There will be a six week, virtual, regular season followed by a post-season competition between regional winners. The final two teams will compete head-to-head in an all-expense paid trip to Orlando, FL in June.

If you are interested, please contact the representative for your region above. 

We will be selecting teams between now and April 13.   Teams will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.