Southeast cybersecurity team advances again to regional competition

Southeast Missouri State University Cyber Defense team members are forced to fend off a dizzying array of hacks during competitions.

Southeast's team did just that recently, winning a competition against other 11 schools in the state of Missouri.

The team advanced to the Midwest Regional competition for the fifth consecutive year, according to a university news release.

The Midwest Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Qualification Competition takes place March 17 and 18 in Chicago.

Dr. Vijay Anand, cybersecurity program director at Southeast, said cyberdefense competitions are the closest approximations of real-world experience students can achieve.

"Two days at regionals, it's intense," Anand said. "It's nerve-wracking, the number of attacks."

Southeast's toughest competition for the state title came from the Missouri University of Science and Technology at Rolla, according to the release.

Teams from Illinois and Iowa also competed.

"I think the students did very well in the context of the tough competition from MST Rolla. I am very proud of them," Anand said in the news release. "This is the fifth year we have won the competition for the state of Missouri, so it reflects on the culture of excellence that is embedded within the cybersecurity program here at Southeast."

In the Midwest Cyber Defense Competition, each team takes over the system of a fictional health-services company that recently released its information-technology employees and needs to pass an audit, according to a competition team packet.

The team tries to upgrade the system while being attacked by a team of hackers attempting to steal specific files for information.

The past two years, Southeast's Cyber Defense team finished second and third, respectively, in the Midwest regional. The team features four returning members: Joshua Fairchild of Potosi, Missouri; Jonathan Fulling of Bloomington, Illinois; Lucas Kossack of Grantsburg, Illinois; and Jasmeet Kukreja of New Delhi, India. Only Kossack was a competing team member in 2016.

Other 2017 Cyber Defense team members include Joe Niswonger of Cape Girardeau; Mackenzie Bonneville of Mapleton, Illinois; Bryton Herdes of Xenia, Illinois; Steve Esswein of St. Louis; Michael Maune of Villa Ridge, Missouri; Brandon Hathaway of Eureka, Missouri; and Ben Shell of Marble Hill, Missouri.

Anand attributed the team turnover to past competitors receiving job offers. There is demand from auditing firms, network-security organizations, software companies, research organization and IT departments all over the country to strengthen cybersecurity in several capacities, Anand said.

Southeast students can expect jobs that pay from $65,000 to $85,000 from the outset, Anand said.

"Everything is online," Anand said. "The surface area for hackers is large. Not every system is as secure as it should be, and that's why there's a need for engineering talent. It's a race to solve all types of security problems."

Team-member roles break down to liaison between the team and management, services and applications, Anand said.

bkleine@semissourian.com

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