CSSIA at Moraine Valley to Host State Cyber Defense Competition

President Obama has said, “The cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation. America’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cyber security.” This country’s electric grid, schools, hospitals, and a multitude of businesses run on computerized systems that could be threatened at any time. With that in mind, cyber security education becomes all that more important, and Moraine Valley Community College is part of the effort.

The Center for Systems Security and Information Assurance (CSSIA) at is hosting the Illinois Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition on Saturday, March 3. This state event will use Moraine Valley’s Virtualization Data Center, a one-of-a-kind cyber lab with 192 servers that students can virtually log onto for competitions. Teams will compete virtually or on campus. The all-day event starts at 10 a.m. in Building T on campus, 9000 W. College Pkwy, Palos Hills. Competitions are being held across the Midwest, and the top winners of each state qualify for the regional event, March 16-17, also at Moraine Valley.

Since 2003, Moraine Valley has been the lead institution for CSSIA as a regional center for five states with a focus on curriculum development, outreach, and faculty development and mentoring. By expanding into a national resource center, the focus is on high school and college cyber security skills competitions, academic mentoring for faculty and students for competitions, and faculty development.

These contests pit student teams against various professional hackers within the cyber security field and are designed to test each student team’s ability to secure a networked computer system while maintaining standard business functionality. Students from Moraine Valley, Lake Land College, Northwestern University, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, DeVry University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois State University, DePaul University, Governors State University, and Joliet Junior College will participate.