The Tennessee Tech Cybersecurity Team will compete for its first national championship this weekend.
The competition is a defensive competition, meaning teams must protect a simulated network against attackers. Since the team’s win in the regional competition, Staff Member Jeremy Potts said the team has been working to simulate the environment of the national championship. Potts said he is proud the team has made it this far.
“We’re excited to see what they’ll do,” Potts said. “It’ll bring a lot of recognition to us as a university, and our program, as well as the students. It’s a massive opportunity to put that on their resume.”
The team of eight students has created mock competitions to better prepare for the national championship. Potts said seeing the contest development side has shifted the team’s mindset to better focus on the obstacles of the real competition.
“There are specific tools that they use they’ll disclose,” Potts said. “They also train over operating systems, quirks that they might have, how to operate them and certain things.”
The team also has to focus on general cybersecurity skills, since parts of the competition are unknown to participants until it begins. The “blue team” participants must defend against a “red teamer,” or adversary.
“The competition will pull professional red-teamers, or ethical hackers, penetration testers, and those types to volunteer their time to attack the network and simulate a live attacker,” Potts said.
The team will need to do “injectors,” or simulated corporate tasks while defending against the attack.
Team members include Gabriel Adams, John Bretlinger, Landon Byrge, Nate Dunlap, Landon Foister, Carter Haney, Joey Milton, and Trey Owen.
