Begin forwarded message:
From: Patrick Kelly <irish1618@GMAIL.COM>
Date: July 28, 2009 12:49:56 AM EDT
Subject: Re: Cyber security briefing
Reply-To: Patrick Kelly <irish1618@GMAIL.COM>
I was able to attend the CSIS Panel on the hill today and didn't recognize anyone from the USACM so I thought I would send a quick update on the event.
The short and sweet version is that CSIS (and the SANS Institute) officially annoucned the US Cyber Challenge(s): http://csis.org/uscc or http://www.sans.org/uscc
For the long version:
The US Cyber Challenge is a series of existing competitions brought together to attract untapped talent from around the country - high school through post-graduate levels. The three competitions are as follows:
CyberPatriot Defense Competition
https://registration.afa.org/reg/reg1.aspx?event=cyber2010®type=RequestInfo
DC3 Digital Forensics Challenge
http://www.dc3.mil/challenge/
Netwars Capture-the-Flag Competition
http://www.sans.org/netwars/
For the event itself, James Lewis, CSIS, and Alan Paller, SANS, provided introductions and moderated the event.
Dick Schaeffer, NSA, offered opening remarks and commentary on the state of cyber security recruiting. He offered up the recently released Partnership for Public Service & Booz Allen Hamilton report as evidence: http://ourpublicservice.org/OPS/publications/viewcontentdetails.php?id=135
Steven Shirley, DC3, commented on the origins of the DC3 forensics competition and how positive the responses have been in recent years.
Sandy Schlitt, Board for Aerospace Education, gave a brief update on the successful trial run of the CyberPatriot Defense Competition in January and a status check for the next round of competition that closes in September. Thus far the competition has attracted 270 high school teams from 44 states, plus Japan and South Korea - well beyond their initial goal of 25 teams.
Greg White, University of Texas, offered information regarding the development of the cyber competitions and success in getting students interested in the field.
James Shewmaker, key developer of the SANS NetWars project, gave an update of the virtual, scalable platform he developed with a synopsis of the success of the first round of competition. The platform is a small, stripped down linux distribution that must be cracked before the user can enter the online competition. It's designed for entry level competitors but offers additional levels for more advanced users. Once a user has achieved 500 points, they are entered into a higher rung of competition to provide additional challenges and give new entrants a fighting chance. It sounds as though the project is still underdevelopment but, from his description, it's off to a good start.
Lastly, Peter Fonash, NCSD DHS, delivered closing remarks and provided general information about efferts underway regarding Critical Infrastructure Protection, growth at US-CERT and their involvement in the Scholarship for Service/CyberCorp Program.
For additional documentation, the White House offers an breakdown of the initiative here:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/cyber/The%20United%20States%20Cyber%20Challenge%201.1%20%28updated%205-8-09%29.pdf
Or you can read more about it at any one of the dozen or so articles here:
http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&ned=us&cf=all&ncl=dbzycE-xTVspJNMPL8WocXZiKZn4M
- PJ
On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 8:22 AM, Cameron Wilson <cwilson.acm@gmail.com> wrote:
For those that are local to DC:Cyber Security Challenges
Center for Strategic and International StudiesPanel DiscussionCenter for Strategic and International Studies holds a discussion titled "U.S. Cyber Challenge - Can We Catch Up?Note: E-mail RSVP to contact.For further information: http://csis.org/event/us-cyber-challenge-can-we-catch
New Date Monday, July 27, 11:30 a.m. Place 1539 Longworth Bldg. Participants
Sent from my iPhone please excuse typos