Finalists named for 2014 Maryland Cyber Challenge

Twenty-four finalists have been named for the 2014 Maryland Cyber Challenge, held in conjunction with CyberMaryland 2014.

The 2014 Maryland Cyber Challenge is designed to attract students and young professionals to cybersecurity careers.

There are three divisions with eight finalists in each: high school, college and professional. The high school and college teams will compete for $84,000 in cash prices, given through the Universtiy of Maryland, Baltimore County Foundation.

Each member of the winning teams will get $5,000 and each member of the second place teams will get $2,000.

The finalists qualified using the Leidos Cyber Network Exercise System.

The finalists are:

High School Teams

• Chesapeake High School

• Harford Tech

• Loyola Blakefield (Gold)

• Loyola Blakefield (Blue)

• Marshall Academy (RAID 50)

• Marshall Academy (DREAM!)

• Catonsville High School (Comets)

• Poolesville (PHS Falcons)

University Teams

• Towson University (Go! Go! Pwnzilla!)

• UMBC CyberDawgs 1

• UMBC Cyber Scholars 3

• UMUC Cyber Padawan 1

• UMUC Cyber Padawan 2

• UMD ACES Team 3

• UMD ACES Team 5

• George Mason University (Green Hats)

Professional Teams

• Cyberjutsu Women

• Chiron Tech

• Prime Solutions

• UMUC Pro 1

• UMUC Pro 2

• The Loco SAs

• MindPoint Group

• Port Pirates

During the competition, the teams will “harden” computer systems against intrusions, identify vulnerabilities and apply the security patches. During the finals, the high school teams will evaluate and protect systems, then face a live “Red Team” who will test their computer defense skills.

The college and professionals teams will shift from defense to offense in a capture the flag exercise where they break into systems to “plant flags” and then protect those systems from other teams.

The finals are scheduled for Oct. 29-30, 2014, at the Baltimore Convention Center.