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COLUMBIA, S.C. - Navy Cyber Defense Operations Command (NCDOC) sent seven of its finest cyber warriors to participate in the Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition (PCDC) 2015, April 17, which took place at the Trident Technical College in South Carolina.
The PCDC is a three-day Cyber Defense Competition held by Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SSC Atlantic) in collaboration with the South Carolina Lowcountry Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA).
NCDOC analysts were invited to do what they do best: computer network defense.
The NCDOC team, led by Cryptologic Technician (Networks) Chief Jason Lois, fought vigorously to defend against the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command’s (SPAWAR) Red Team in order to protect a fictional gaming company’s network for the purposes of the competition.
“We spent two full days doing recon and mapping out the network in preparation for creating strategies to defend against the red [attacking] team,” said Cryptologic Technician (Networks) 1st Class (CTN1) Jeffrey Letzerich of the long hours the team devoted to the exercise. “The competition was rough and the dedication on both sides culminated in a mutual respect between the competing teams."
The competition was originally a two day event for training high school and college students to develop technical skills in cyber security and network defense, which are needed in today’s fast paced and challenging cyber environment.
SSC Atlantic added a third day to the exercise – a "Pro Day" - at the request of United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM). Pro Day created a window of opportunity for four Department of Defense (DOD) teams and four Information Technology industry teams to exercise workforce development, training, recruiting, and computer networking.
The Sailors who represented NCDOC exhibited well-rounded and advanced technical knowledge on Red and Blue Teaming.
"During the High school competition [as we prepared], one of the red team guys carried a camera around to their desks and began recording students' monitors. We assumed that the students were not familiar with social engineering and physical security tactics. When the day [day three] came for us, we moved all the desks so we could monitor our area more efficiently" said CTN1 Dale Goodman.
Before the competition, the NCDOC team was given a brief summary on the type of technologies that would be involved, which included an Elastic Sky X Integrated (ESXI) server, Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) security appliance, Voice over IP (VOIP) phones, and wireless devices.
"Chief Lois did some ‘war driving’ around the building during our 2-day reconnaissance period and found a way into their network. We were then able to map and enumerate the red team infrastructure to get a better understanding of their capabilities.” said CTN2 John Kacir. “CTN1 Goodman was well versed in Windows active directory while some of us were Linux savvy,” Kacir went on to say.
Although team NCDOC did not bring home the trophy, the team gained quite a bit from the competition, including the opportunity to emphasize the strength in teamwork and reinforce the importance of the ability to work together to defend something larger than themselves.
“The NCDOC Team accomplished fantastic work, said Capt. Douglas Powers, NCDOC Commanding Officer, of the team’s outstanding effort. “Collaboration with academia is critical to building cyber defense savvy employees of the future.”
The NCDOC team included:
CTNC Jason Lois,
CTN1 Dale Goodman,
CTN1 Jeffrey Letzerich,
Information Systems Technician 1st Class (IT1) Matthew Selbrede,
IT2 Byron Wilson,
CTN2 Joseph Cahill, and
CTN2 John Kacir.
NCDOC's mission is to coordinate, monitor, and oversee the defense of Navy computer networks and systems and accomplish Computer Network Defense (CND) missions that commanders, U.S. 10th Fleet and U.S. Cyber Command assign.
| Date Taken: | 04.17.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2015 12:59 |
| Story ID: | 161373 |
| Location: | COLUMBIA, SC, US |
| Web Views: | 619 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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