Westwood Competes in 2009 Western Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

Westwood College students recently headed off to Pomona, California, to compete in the 2009 Western Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. The event was held at Cal Poly’s Classroom, Laboratory and Administration Building over the course of the three day competition. Other schools in the competition were Cal State San Bernardino, Cal Poly, Mt. San Antonio College, Sacramento State and Arizona's University of Advancing Technology.

The building housed six imaginary "businesses" run by each of the schools respectively. These businesses were up against a group of professionals, known as the Red Team. The Red team was comprised of computer security experts familiar with business security systems. Their goal was to break into the college students' systems.

Among the professionals trying to break into the collegiate systems was Rodney Kocot, a graduate of Cal Poly who works in the industry:

"It's just like they walked into a business," Kocot said. "We have to protect these system but we have to keep them running."

The competition called for 24-hr monitoring, which meant teamwork was essential. Each team had to take responsibility for operating a system that has deficiencies, identify them, fix them, and continue to keep everything operating. If there was a breach, they must address it and run a full report. This must all be done while carrying out normal activities, such as setting up new employee email accounts and filling requests.

Although Westwood College did not come out on top this year, we are incredibly proud of the students who represented Westwood in this nationally recognized competition.