CCDC

CCDC is my first exposure to a live cybersecurity competition. Given a virtual computer network, my team must try to secure it against outside attacks, implement safe administrative policies, and fix any vulnerability to the system. The competition is set in a live roleplay environment, and we were given the role of a fictional company’s I.T. team over two days. The network of computers is composed of 8 to 10 virtual machines that are set up to work like the actual computer infrastructure used in a company. In addition to maintaining the system, there would be a group of competition volunteers, called the yellow team, who would requests system changes that would force us to revises our strategies. Another group of volunteers, the red team, would also constantly attack our system with real-world exploits and hacking tools for the entire duration of the competition. Overall, this is a high-pressure event that requires adaptability and teamwork.

My role was an assistance Linux administrator in the back-up team, so I’ve only participated in the qualifying round of the competition. However, I still learned a lot about maintaining Linux computers during training and the qualifying round. I was in charge of some of the Linux machines, where I had to learn CLI-based administrative tools within the Linux file system. My teammates had a varied set of skills and I was able to gain wide, basic knowledge about administrating a computer system. A particular moment that I remembered is my time working on a difficult problem with a graduate teammate. The computer was experiencing an internal kernel error, and it had to be upgraded using the rudimentary TTY terminal interface. He was able to do a reality-check on the issue by explaining his thinking to me, and I was able to learn the problem-solving skills involved with fixing a cybersecurity issue. This and other similar moments allowed me to learn about a vast, difficult subject of system administration, while also being a complete beginner in the field. In 2020, I want to train harder for the competition to be placed in the main team.

Pictured: Both the main team and the back-up team after the qualifying round.