UF Cyber Defense Team Competing in Southeast Region Hacking Competition

2018 uf ccdc team

For the third time in three years, the University of Florida Student InfoSec Team (UF SIT) has been 1 of 7 teams whose high performance has qualified them to compete in the regional Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (SECCDC). The competition – in which a group of students must defend a computer network from persistent attacks from hacking experts – will take place from April 2-3 in Kennesaw, Ga.

In February, 12 members represented UF in the remote competition: Shawn Newsome, Scott Miller, Vijay Prakash, Claire Seiler, Ben Simon, Terry Thibault, Anton Valdez, and John Woodman – along with alternating members and nonparticipating representatives Nicholas Barnes, Sydney Achinger, Daniel Chalco, and Madeline Farina. They participated in the 4-hour preliminary qualification competition. After achieving one of the highest scores, the team continued their unbroken qualifying streak and were invited to move to the next round – the onsite regional competition.

Joseph N. Wilson, Ph.D., an associate professor at UF’s Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, is the faculty advisor for the InfoSec Team.

Last year, UFSIT won third place in the southeast onsite competition.


Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering