Experiences During a Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

The objective of this article is to encourage schools to participate in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) and to ease their entry by providing information about the event and describing the experiences of both the student participants and the educators. This article focuses mainly on the recent experience of a University of North Texas student team at the Southwest Regional CCDC 2008 hosted by Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. It describes the entire process of participating in the CCDC, including announcements, team formation, task assignments, preparations, and actual team experience during the competition and provides suggestions on strategies for future competitions.