Marymount University’s CyberSaints placed 5th out of 13 college teams at the Virginia Cyber Cup Capture the Flag competition on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute the weekend of Feb. 25. Teams tackled problems that modeled real-world computer security challenges, including cryptography, network traffic analysis, reverse engineering, steganography and more.
The CyberSaints included Ritu Marwaha (captain), Austin Strand, Ben Fournier, Daniel Semler, Abdo Mhainy, and Alula HaileMariam.
“This was our first ‘capture the flag’ competition and we did very, very well,” said Dr. Diane Murphy, chair of Marymount’s Department of Information Technology, Management Sciences, and Cybersecurity.
She noted that Marymount was the only school to solve one particular challenge, which she credited to the work of Strand and Semler.
Five other students attended as observers and were able to attempt the challenges in order to develop their skills apart from the competition. Shereen Gustaad, Delmy Soto, Curtis Indyke and Danielle Somadelis attended. Richard Murphy, an adjunct professor, served as the team’s cybersecurity competition expert.
The competition was part of Commonwealth Cyber Fusion 2017. Hosted by Virginia Military Institute and sponsored by the Virginia Secretary of Technology and U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, the event emphasized the integration of technology with policy and intelligence. In addition to panel discussions, Marymount students attended a CyberFusion job fair and met with companies that included Amazon, MITRE, Booz Allen Hamilton, Northrup Grumman, SAIC, Noblis, Vencore and others.
Marymount University is an independent, coeducational Catholic university offering bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in a wide range of disciplines.
Photo caption
Marymount University’s CyberSaints placed 5th out of 13 college teams recently at the Virginia Cyber Cup Capture the Flag competition on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute. The team included, from left: Alula HaileMariam, Daniel Semler, Austin Strand, Ritu Marwaha, Abdo Mhainy, and Ben Fournier.
