WCTC has strong student participation in state, regional, and national cybersecurity events and competitions. Participation is so high that the BIT Club formed the Cybersecurity League (CSL), which meets weekly throughout the school year; many of the events below involve this team or its members.
Below are some of the recent events at WCTC related to cybersecurity; to see what we’re getting up to next, check out our calendar of upcoming events!
Cybersecurity League Roster
Coach/Advisor: Mark Krzyszkowski
- Caz Laska
- Elijah Ligrow
- Eric Heimermann
- Jared Frank
- Kit Wilson
- Michael Nault
- Nick Saeger
- Sarah Schackel
- Rob Stone II
- Zach Stoltenburg
Past Events
National Cyber League (NCL) Spring Season — April 2019
[Recap in progress, please be patient!]
Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) Wisconsin Qualifier — February 2, 2019
The CCDC Wisconsin Qualifier was held at Northwestern Mutual Cream City Labs on February 2, 2019.
Three “Blue” teams (WCTC, MSOE, Madison College) defended their networks against a “Red” team of penetration testers (hackers) throughout the day, while Blue team management tasked the teams with everyday tasks and projects.
WCTC was represented as follows:
Robert Stone – Team Captain
Michael Nault
Zachary Stoltenburg
Casimir Laska
Elijah Ligrow
Nicholas Mautner
Lucas Hasby
Mark Krzyszkowski – Coach
D.J. Vogel – Observer
Jeremy Bauer – Local Judge
The Red team was relentless this year, defacing websites, placing ransomware on machines, requesting that team members literally ‘sing a song’ to regain control of machines, and even delivering a “bomb” that needed to be diffused in a short amount of time. This competition is designed to emulate at least one year of on-the-job security work, in one day.
WCTC was the victorious team once again this year, earning the title of 1st place team in 2018 and 2019, beating out to 2nd place MSOE, and then to Madison College. WCTC earned the opportunity to compete in the Midwest regionals against the top teams in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, and Missouri.
National Cyber League Fall Postseason — November 28 – Dec 5, 2016
Both teams represented WCTC well. Many hours of sleep were lost as WCTC Blue wrested every flag they could from the challenges, ending the competition 6th out of the 62 teams in the silver bracket and in 12th place overall.
WCTC Orange (made up of first-time competitors minus one) had a respectable finish in their own right, placing 28th out of 48 in the bronze bracket.
Both teams have vowed to improve in anticipation of NCL expanding the competition. When the new spring semester competition rolls around they will be ready! For pictures, see the NCL Fall 2016 gallery.
National Cyber League Fall Season — November 5 & 19, 2016
Many members of WCTC’s Cybersecurity Competition Team took part in the preseason which placed them into Gold, Silver, and Bronze brackets for the Fall Season. The competition was on an individual basis, with the season being made up of two different 8-hour challenges. Multiple WCTC students made the top 10% in Game 1, Game 2, or in both challenges.
This year was especially challenging for several of the students, as the 8 hour competition on the 19th followed directly on the heels of the 4-5 hours of the Midwest CCDC Invitational!
Midwest Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Invitational — November 19, 2016
The Invitational is a ‘mini-CCDC’ event that gives students (many of whom are new to the competition) a glimpse into the upcoming competition in the spring semester. WCTC’s team had an excellent showing, taking 3rd place in the morning bracket of 9 teams.
Team Members:
Lucas Gallagher – Team Captain
Alex Larkin
Lee Layton
Nicholas Mautner
Isaac Sagert
John Shegonee
Robert Stone
Jenna Watkins
Mark Krzyszkowski – Coach
For pictures, see the CCDC Fall 2016 gallery.
Cyber Security Summit — October 28, 2016
WCTC’s 3rd Annual Cyber Security Summit, in partnership with Marquette University, was designed to answer the call of state leadership to take action to secure our critical infrastructure. IT leaders and businesses from around the state attended lectures and discussed the stance and stakes of cybersecurity in Wisconsin industry. In the afternoon students were invited to attend several talks by industry leaders.
For more details, including handouts from the event, visit WCTC’s event page. For pictures, see the Cyber Security Summit Gallery.
US Cyber Challenge — April 25 – May 6, 2016
Similar in format to NCL, this competition involved searching for flags, analyzing logs, cracking passwords, and more. Top scorers (including at least one WCTC student) were given the opportunity to attend an invitational Cyber Camp. The intensive week-long bootcamp featured nationally recognized instructors, who took students through penetration testing techniques culminating in a day-long capture the flag exercise.
AITP National Collegiate Conference and Career Fair — April 7 – 10, 2016
AITP Chicago was an unparalleled success for WCTC; in competitions the college took home more awards than any other institution with 5 placements and 3 Honorable Mentions across the categories, surpassing many 4-year colleges in the process. In addition, one of our own was honored with the Volunteer of the Year award. Here are the Cybersecurity-related awards:
Security Competition
2nd Place: Isaac Sagert
3rd Place: Charlie Russell
Honorable Mention: Theresa LaMott
Mike Burell AITP NCC Volunteer of the Year Award: Mark Krzyszkowski – Waukesha County Technical College
For more details, including WCTC’s awards in other categories, click here.
Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition State Qualifier — March 5 & 12, 2016
WCTC’s Cybersecurity Competition Team took third place in the Wisconsin qualifier, defending network services while under assault by a determined red team of industry professionals.
Team Members:
Charlie Russell – Team Captain
Vincent Bisesi
Lucas Gallagher
Alex Larkin
Lee Layton
Andy Nellen
Isaac Sagert
Alex Zech
Mark Krzyszkowski – Coach
Congratulations to MSOE’s first place team who went on to represent Wisconsin at the Regional competition!