The UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team has claimed another national title with a first-place finish at the 2024 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) CyberForce Competition. The win marks UCF’s fifth championship and fourth consecutive victory, with previous wins in 2018 and 2021-23.

The annual competition, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, challenges competitors to protect a critical infrastructure against malicious cyber activity. This year, 96 teams representing 71 universities put their cybersecurity skills to the test by protecting a wind energy generation plant.

“CyberForce is the preeminent collegiate cyber defense competition during the fall semester,” says team head coach and advisor Tom Nedorost. “It’s big news that we’ve won it five times in the past nine years. No other team has won more than once.”

The first-place team, A Team With a Dream, comprises cyber security and privacy master’s student and team captain Harrison Keating ’24, cyber security and privacy master’s students Jeffrey DiVincent ’23 and Matthew McKeever ’24, computer science doctoral students Caitlin Whitehead ’24MS and Cameron Whitehead ’24MS, and senior computer science student Rodrigo Almeida Santos.

UCF’s second team, the Citronauts, had a commendable performance earning sixth place and a spot among the top 10 finishers in the competition. The team comprises junior political science student and team captain Noah Magill, junior computer science major Joseph Durand, senior computer science student Anthony Marrongelli, junior IT student Ardian Peach and sophomore computer science students Muhammad Ali and Miles Rack.

The competition began with surprising comments that both acknowledged UCF’s winning legacy at the DOE CyberForce Competition and served as motivation for the two UCF teams.

“During the welcoming remarks this year, several DOE administrators challenged the other teams not to let UCF win again,” Nedorost says. “However, we still won, and our other team finished in sixth place among a field of 96 teams.”

Santos, the youngest member of A Team With a Dream, competed for the first time at this year’s contest.

“Although I was aware of UCF’s track record and everyone’s desire to win, I did not expect it to be clearly broadcasted in the welcome remarks,” Santos says. “We stay humble because that’s part of our character and … we are aware that getting comfortable and letting success get to our heads is a recipe for disaster.”

Whitehead, a team veteran and member of UCF’s first-place team for four DOE CyberForce Competitions, says the surprising mention of UCF in the welcoming remarks only motivated the team to work harder.

“Everyone on the team knows that the big room at CyberForce is full of extremely talented people,” she says. “We 100% did not take it as given that we were going to win. Even at the times when we are in first [place] on the leaderboard, just a little bit of bad luck or poor judgment could make all the difference in placement. So we need to make sure to work as hard as we can and not pass up any opportunity to earn more points.”

Although the students competed in person in St. Charles, Illinois, last weekend, the competition actually began the week prior. Each team submitted security documentation outlining its infrastructure and defense strategies for the wind energy generation plant, along with a video aimed at C-suite executives, detailing their assessment and plans to secure the plant.

At the all-day, in-person competition, teams worked to block and mitigate cyberattacks, keep services and features running efficiently, and perform technical tasks, all while maintaining a high level of service for their customers.

“To me, the most challenging aspect of the competition was the countless hours of preparation that led to the eventual competition day, combined with handling the pressure of competing against dozens of other universities working hard to win,” Santos says.

Whitehead says one reason UCF teams have been so successful is because they consist of members with a strong combination of varied strengths, tailor made for a comprehensive competition.

“One of the things that really makes CyberForce stand out as a truly great cybersecurity competition is the breadth of skills that it covers, including a variety of soft skills, system defense, intrusion detection and response, digital forensic analysis, reverse engineering, critical infrastructure-specific knowledge and experience, cybersecurity policy application, and more,” Whitehead says. “Ultimately, I think our teams stand out by selecting a group … with a wide breadth of experience in all of these areas, as well as a willingness to throw ourselves into learning to perform any tasks that we may be less comfortable with.”

An unexpected highlight of the competition was a 10th anniversary display that chronicled its history and, in recognition of UCF’s impressive performance over the years, paid tribute to the university’s legacy at CyberForce.

“[There was] an exhibit at the side of the competition showing pictures from the last 10 years, which was fun to see, especially since UCF has had such a significant presence in this competition over the years,” Whitehead says. “I also loved that the theme colors this year were, coincidentally, black and gold.”