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| GSU's cyber aces team |
Governors State University cybersecurity team of students and faculty competed in the Governor’s Cyber Aces State Championship March 1 at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills. The team was asked to compete after finishing fifth in the Illinois Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Feb. 15 at MVCC.
GSU students were tested against students from around the country. The top 3 percent of students competing in the state were invited to the Governors State Championship.
Tomas Koslab, Jim Potulny, Regina Richard, Tamisha Rose, John Nelson and faculty member Steve Hyzny competed in the state championship. The event began with a panel discussion on ethics with an FBI agent, a system penetration tester and a cyber-security educator. The panel discussed and debated ethical issues of being a cyber-security professional. Then the participants were given a small lesson on tools used in the field. The goal was to discover information needed to answer questions for points. When enough points were achieved, up to four more levels could be opened.
The competition was developed by the SANS Institute (leaders in cyber security training) and is offered in a two day competition to top security professionals. The top three participants received awards but over 50 people, including GSU students, enjoyed the learning experience and chance to show off their skills.
This is the third completion GSU students have competed in for cyber security this year. The competitions test student’s skills and ability to apply the lessons learned in IT and CS classes at GSU. The new IT degree program started last year includes courses on ethical hacking, networking routing, and securing servers to prepare students for a future in cyber-security.