Workshop - using Cyber Defense Competitions (CDCs) to engage and recruit students with IT: how to organize and run your own cyber defense competition

Cyber defense competitions (CDCs) can be used to engage students with information technology and recruit them into a field of study. Iowa State University has hosted over 15 CDCs for varying age levels of students ranging from high schools and community colleges to four-year institutions. Currently, we host the world´s largest CDC with 40 teams participating. In our CDCs students don´t just defend a network; they must conceptualize and build a computer network based on a scenario, as well as develop a plan and method to secure their network. In addition to defending their network, the students also participate in numerous challenges (anomalies) throughout the competition which ask them to make changes to their network to support their end users. In this workshop, we discuss the use of educational materials developed at ISU to get students with little or no security background involved in the competitions. Information on the equipment needed to run a competition, how to staff the event, how to handle remote setup, how to score the event, as well as materials needed to run the competition are included. While designed for faculty who teach in a computer or IT-related discipline, a background in computer security is not necessary.