Middle Georgia State's School of IT Hosts First Capture the Flag Competition

Author: News Bureau
Posted: Tuesday, February 27, 2018 12:00 AM
Categories: Pressroom | Students | School of Information Technology

Macon, GA

Roger Rambo, a Middle Georgia State junior majoring in Information Technology, is the winner of the University's first "capture the flag" (CTF) competition, called the Cyber Knights Banner Challenge, held in February 2018.

Several other IT majors at Middle Georgia State (MGA) also participated in the CTF event, designed to help teach students about specific aspects of cybersecurity.

CTF is a computer security competition and one of the fastest ways to help students learn techniques for protecting systems against cyber attacks. CTF contests are usually designed to serve as an educational exercise to give participants experience in securing a machine, as well as conducting and reacting to the sort of attacks found in the real world. (cisco.com)

"Each year, cyber attacks increase and college and university IT programs are challenged to find new ways to prepare students," said Professor Nelbert 'Doc' St. Clair, director of Program and Outreach for MGA's Center for Cybersecurity Education and Applied Research. "IT majors must understand how hackers can penetrate company networks and find ways to defend against attacks."

Rambo's name will be engraved on a plaque that will be displayed in the School of IT, which plans to make the Banner Challenge an annual event. He also received an EC- Council Certified Ethical Hacker training package worth more than $1,000.

This year’s Banner Challenge covered the areas of Stenography, Code Analysis, Encryption, Hashing, and Network Traffic Analysis. The Cyber Knights Banner Challenge was created by the Cyber Knights, a student club. St. Clair is the club's advisor. MGA students interested in joining the club can contact him at nelbert.stclair@mga.edu. Learn more about the Center for Cybersecurity Education and Applied Research at www.mga.edu/ccear.