Chicago State University Competes in the 2024 CyberForce National Cybersecurity Competition

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On November 8-9, 2024, Chicago State University's Department of Computing, Information, and Mathematical Sciences, and Technology (CIMST) proudly participated in the 2024 CyberForce Competition, held at the Q Center in St. Charles, Illinois. This national cybersecurity contest, organized by the U.S. Department of Energy, aims to enhance students’ skills in defending critical infrastructure against cyber threats.

The CSU Cougars team, comprising six diverse students from undergraduate and graduate programs, actively engaged in this challenging event. Throughout the competition, college teams from across the country tackled realistic scenarios, working to protect simulated energy, transportation, and other critical infrastructure systems from cyber threats. The event emphasized teamwork, technical expertise, and strategic thinking, offering participants valuable hands-on experience and insights from cybersecurity experts.

The CSU team collaborated to address various cybersecurity challenges. They effectively utilized AWS, MQL, Instances, and EC2 for cloud infrastructure management and integrated TCP and UDP connections into their system using a GUI. Additionally, they leveraged remote desktop connections to access their server and analyzed different anomalies, honing their problem-solving skills in real-time cybersecurity scenarios.