Cybersecurity club is a club here at Boro that’s run by Mr. Goldstein, one of the computer science teachers of the Computer Science Program. While the club is targeted to those in Comp-Sci, anyone can join! Throughout the year in the Cybersecurity club, we participate in various competitions like CyberPatriots, RUSecure, and PicoCTF. If you don’t have a lot of time for after-school meetings, this is a great club for you because all the competitions take place at-home or during the school-day!
CyberPatriots
The CyberPatriots competition is run by the Air Force Association. It takes place from October to January, and all the competitions are done during the school-day (meaning you do miss out on class, which can be tricky!) During the competition, your team of five is given 4 hours to secure various virtual machines and systems like Windows 10, Windows Server, Ubuntu, Debian, and Packet Tracer. These competitions are very fun and are a great way to work with your peers towards a common goal!
RUSecure
RUSecure takes place over the course of two weeks and is hosted by Radford University. The competition is a “capture the flag” competition where your team works to earn points by decoding hashes, solving puzzles, and doing precise research! This competition is “asynchronous”, meaning that you can work on it at any time over the course of the two weeks, and you don’t need to work at the same time as your team or other students.
PicoCTF
PicoCTF is a lot like RUSecure. It is a “capture the flag” competition hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. Like RUSecure, you work in a team to earn points, but the puzzles are a little more in-depth and they cover a lot more skill-sets.
Overall, even if just one of these competitions intrigues you, join the Cybersecurity club! You are not required to compete in anything you don’t want to. If you’re interested, make sure to keep an eye out for any interest meetings next year!
