Rogers State University’s cybersecurity team members were recognized recently for their exemplary season, with Team A finishing in the top one percent and Team B finishing in the top four percent. Honorees included Nghi Nguyen of Vietnam (front, from left), My Le of Vietnam, and Colt Grubbs of Claremore; Alex Laird of Claremore (center, from left), Courtney Townsend of Tulsa, Alyssa Allen of Claremore, and Sarah Karamitis of Claremore; and JamesDake Meilvane of Claremore(back, from left), Khai Nguyne of Vietnam, Ted Watson of Tulsa, Sayre Bennett of Talala, and Reece Dodson of Pryor.
Members of Rogers State University’s cybersecurity team, the CyberCats, soared recently at their third national competition, with RSU’s teams finishing in the top one and five percent out of more than 4,000 teams.
Held April 19-21, the National Cyber League (NCL) competition presented students with practical cybersecurity challenges likely to be encountered in the workforce, such as identifying hackers from forensic data, penetration testing and auditing vulnerable websites, recovering from ransomware attacks, and more.
NCL spring 2024 competition modules included Cryptography, Log Analysis, Network Traffic Analysis, Scanning, Forensics, Password Cracking, Enumeration and Exploitation, Web Application Security, and Open-Source Intelligence.
Participation in the competition tracks a team’s skill growth with an NCL Scouting Report or represents respective schools in the national Cyber Power Rankings.
By the end of the tournament, CyberCats team A was ranked in the top one percent, while CyberCats Team B was ranked in the top four percent, with Team A finishing 55th out of 4,212 teams, ahead of much larger teams, such as the University of Alabama, which finished 78th.
RSU Technology and Justice Studies Department Head Dr. Curtis Sparling praised the team for their high performance at a recognition ceremony May 2 in the Herrington Hall Auditorium on the RSU campus in Claremore.
“When you think about it, our teams were competing against institutions that had 60,000 students, so you think of the number of the pool of individuals that were there competing in relation to the pool of individuals we have (at RSU), and it’s substantially smaller,” Sparling said. “What that means is the students here at RSU are top notch. We are competing with much bigger schools. At the last (NCL) competition, we were equally spaced between Baylor University and Alabama.”
Sparling also commended the learners for their community outreach efforts, after which, he recognized the team members with the presentation of certificates of appreciation and 3D printed badges, created specifically for the ceremony.
The National Cyber League (NCL) is an inclusive, performance-based, learning centered collegiate cybersecurity competition. NCL is open to high school and college students and is a community and virtual training ground which allows students to develop their technical cybersecurity skills, helping bridge the gap from curriculum to career.
Rogers State University offers a Bachelor of Technology in applied technology – cybersecurity degree, which includes expertly designed cybersecurity courses, cutting-edge resources and career preparation in the high-demand field of cybersecurity.
For more information, visit www.rsu.edu/BTcybersecurity.