ECU team wins cybersecurity competition

From left, East Carolina University students Viapak Goyal, John Payne, Kiernan Murphy and Tristan Conner recently won the Micro Trend Advanced Capture the Flag cybersecurity competition. (Contributed photo)

A group of four students from East Carolina University recently won the Trend Micro Advanced Capture the Flag event.

The contest is a cybersecurity competition designed to challenge participants to solve computer security problems and/or capture and defend computer systems.

The students — Viapak Goyal, John Payne, Kiernan Murphy and Tristan Conner — used Trend Micro’s Deep Security Manager management console to conduct an analysis on several computer hosts in a lab environment as part of the competition.

“The purpose of the lab was for us to determine three things: what user was first infected; what was the infected file and/or service; and what did the attacker do once they were inside the system,” Conner said.

The team received points for each “flag” found and was able to hold off the other teams to win the competition. For winning, the students each received a pair of Bose Frames Audio Sunglasses.

Trend Micro, which put on the event, is a multinational cyber security and defense company.

The ECU student chapter of the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA) is putting on its own Capture the Flag competition from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 9 in the College of Engineering and Technology’s new cybersecurity lab in room 242 of the Science and Technology Building. Storm CTF is putting on the competition. Information on the competition can be found at https://engage.ecu.edu/event/5060950.

ISSA is an international organization designed to develop and connect cybersecurity leaders while offering support in managing technology risk and protecting information and infrastructure. ECU faculty advisor for the group is Steve Baker, bakers@ecu.edu.