Dr. Thomas Nedorost, an Instructor of Computer Science and Information Technology, serves as the Faculty Advisor to the Collegiate Cyber Defense Club @ UCF and Coach for UCF’s Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Team.
Collegiate Cyber Defense Club @ UCF (aka Hack@UCF) – Founded by students in September 2012 to establish a computer security community within the university, to provide a venue for students to improve their computer security skills, and to foster an understanding of ethics with the training provided, the club participates in a variety of collegiate, national, and international cyber security competitions with the goal of producing a security aware generation in Central Florida. The club currently has over 200 active student members and conducts weekly meetings and workshops during the academic year that are open to the general public. The club maintains a website at https://www.hackucf.org/.
UCF Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Team – Formed in January 2013, the UCF CCDC Team won 1st Place in the 7-state Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition in March 2013 and received the “Best in Service” specialty award for maintaining system uptime of 89% which set a new regional record. In 2014, the UCF CCDC Team again won 1st Place in the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and received two specialty awards: the ”Best in Business” award for submitting and completing the largest number of business injects and the “Best in Defense” award for losing the fewest points to the Red Team. In April 2014, the UCF team won 1st Place in the 2014 National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and was declared the National Champions of Collegiate Cyber Defense. The UCF C3 team won the national championship in the following 2015 and 2016 consecutively, and finished in second place in 2018, 2019, 2020. In April 2021 and April 2022, UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team won the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition National Championship for consecutive years. This is the 4th and 5th times UCF has claimed the National Championship in this annual competition.
Knightsec CTF Competition Team – As part of our Collegiate Cyber Defense Club, our students participate under the “Knightsec” team name in over a dozen national and international Capture-the-Flag competitions each year. “Knightsec” finished calendar year 2014 ranked 72nd out of 6207 international CTF teams and 12th out of 259 United States CTF teams by CTFtime.org. As of December, 2021, “Knightsec” is ranked 67th among all international CTF teams and 12th among United States CTF teams by CTFtime.org.
Past Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC):
- 2014 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 1st place (News Article)
- 2015 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 1st place (News Article)
- 2016 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 1st place (News Article)
- 2018 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 2nd place
- 2019 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 2nd place (News Article)
- 2020 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 2nd place (News Article)
- 2021 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 1st place (News Article)
- 2022 CCDC (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition) National; UCF won 1st place (News Article)
Other Cyber Competitions (2018-present)
Fall 2018:
- eSentinel North American Open Competition – 1st Place
A-ISAC Collegiate Cyber Challenge – 1st & 2nd Place
Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition – Eastern Regional – 1st Place
Duel Factor CTF @ Florida CyberCon – 1st & 2nd Place
Raymond James Capture the Flag Competition – 1st Place
Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition – Nationals – 3rd Place
UBNetDef LockdownV5 Competition – 1st Place
DOE CyberForce Competition – 1st Place; NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Spring 2019:
- ISEAGE Cyber Defense Competition – 3rd Place
- Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Qualifier – 5th Place
- Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Regional – 1st Place & won “Best in Business”, and “Best in Service” awards
- UBNetDef LockdownV6 Competition – 2nd Place
Fall 2019:
- Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition – Southeast Regional – 1st Place
Raymond James Capture the Flag Competition – 3rd Place
Duel Factor CTF @ Florida CyberCon – 1st Place
HIVE Storm Competition – 1st Place
NIATEC Invitational Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition – 1st Place
DOE CyberForce Competition – 1st Place Lab, 2nd Place National
Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition – Nationals – not top 3
UBNetDef LockdownV5 Competition – 3rd Place
Cybersecurity Academy Challenge @ I/ITSEC – 1st Place
Spring 2020:
- At Large Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Qualifier – 1st Place
Information Security Talent Search Competition @ RIT – 3rd Place
At Large Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Regional – 1st Place & won “Best in Business” award
Fall 2020:
- Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition – Southeast Regional – 1st Place
HIVE Storm Competition – 2nd Place
DOE CyberForce Competition – 2nd Place National
Spring 2021:
- Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition – Global – not top 3
Information Security Talent Search Competition – 3rd Place
Maryland Cyber Challenge – 2nd Place
CyberSEED CTF Competition – 3rd Place
NIATEC Invitational Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition – 1st Place
At-Large Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Regional – 1st Place & won “Best in Business,” “Best in Defense,” and “Best in Service” awards
GLESEC Cyber Range Hackaton Challenge – 1st Place
UBNetDef LockdownV10 Competition – 3rd Place
2021:
- DOE Conquer-the-Hill – Adventurer Competition – 1st Place
- Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition – Southeast Regional – did not place
- Aviation ISAC Collegiate CTF Competition – 1st Place
- Raymond James Capture the Flag Competition – 1st Place
- HIVE Storm Competition – 3rd Place
- National Cyber League Team Competition – 2nd Place
- DOE CyberForce Competition – 1st Place; National Championship (news article)
- NIATEC Invitational Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition – 2nd Place
- WRCCDC Invitational #1 – 1st Place
- NSA Codebreaker Challenge – currently in 5th Place
2022
- CyberSEED CTF - 1st Place
- CAE-NSA Cyber Excecise - National Championship (news article)
- DOE CyberForce Competition – 1st and 2nd Place; National Championship (news article)
- 2022 Aviation ISAC Student Cyber Challenge - 1st and 3rd places
- NIATEC Invitational Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition – 1st Place
- Cyberbit International Cyber League Collegiate Cup - 2nd Place
- Southeast Collegiate Pen Testing Competition - 1st Place
- WRCCDC Invitational - 1st Place
2023
- Cyberbit Spring International Cyber League Collegiate Cup - 2nd Place
- DOE Conquer-the-Hill Reign Edition competition - 1st Place
- 2023 AFCEA Augusta TechNet International Military and Collegiate CTF Competition - 1st Place
- Aviation ISAC Student Cyber Challenge at the A-ISAC International Conference - 1st Place
- Hack the Building 2.0: Hospital Edition - 1st Place
- Raymond James Capture the Flag Competition - 2nd Place
- Southeast Collegiate Pen Testing Competition - 1st Place
- DOE CyberForce Competition – 1st Place; National Championship (news article)