CybersecurityWinners of the California Cyber Summer Camp Capture the Flag competition announced
Cal Poly Pomona, in partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton and the U.S. Cyber Challenge, hosted the U.S. Cyber Challenge California Cyber Summer Camp in Pomona, California; the camp curriculum included in-depth workshops on a range of topics, including penetration testing, reverse engineering, and forensics; the week was capped off by a virtual “capture the flag” competition and awards ceremony on the last day
Cal Poly Pomona, in partnership with Booz Allen Hamilton and the U.S. Cyber Challenge, hosted the U.S. Cyber Challenge California Cyber Summer Camp in Pomona, California. The cyber summer camp was conducted 16-20 July 2012, and included four days of instruction by SANS instructors, a career fair, and a cyber-attack/defense competition.
The team consisting of Blake Nelson of Moreno Valley, California, David Khacherian of Buena Park, California, Khai Tran of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Raphael Munoz of Sylmar, California emerged as the winners of the competition.
ISC(2) presented $1,000 scholarships to the winning capture-the-flag team.
The camp curriculum included in-depth workshops on a range of topics, including penetration testing, reverse engineering, and forensics. The week was capped off by a virtual “capture the flag” competition and awards ceremony on the last day.
Speakers and presenters at the competition and awards ceremony included Mark Weatherford, undersecretary of cybersecurity for DHS; Bob Odenheimer, senior director of financial services for General Dynamics Information Technology; Scott King, senior manager of information systems and Chris Baker, CITO for San Diego Gas & Electric, a Sempra Energy Utility; Karen Evans, national director for U.S. Cyber Challenge; Daniel Manson, executive director of the Center for Information Assurance at Cal Poly Pomona.
Stuart McClure was also present and gave free copies of his book Hacking Exposed to the camp attendees.
More than thirty-five individuals attended and competed in the Cal Poly Pomona camp. Attendees to the invitation-only camps were selected based in part on their scores from Cyber Quests, an online competition offered through the U.S. Cyber Challenge (USCC) in April that drew over a thousand participants from approximately 400 schools nationwide. Cyber Camp invitations were also extended to individuals who demonstrated proficiency in other U.S. Cyber Challenge competitions, such as the Cyber Foundations, CyberPatriot, NetWars, and the DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge.
The camp participants gained an understanding of the dimensions of the workforce shortage and learned about opportunities available to them through USCC and its partners.
The Cal Poly Pomona Cyber Camp was locally sponsored by San Diego Gas & Electric and General Dynamics Information Technology.
The 2012 Cyber Summer Camp Series features two national weeklong camps and two statewide camps. The camps are part of several initiatives underway through USCC, a national campaign focused on identifying and developing cyber security talent to meet the country’s critical cyber security workforce needs.
