UNG in Second Midway through NSA Event
Friday, December 15th, 2023
Roughly midway through this year's National Security Agency (NSA) Codebreaker Challenge, the University of North Georgia's (UNG) students and faculty are in second place in the nationwide cybersecurity competition that includes 410 universities and colleges. The event runs through Dec. 21.
This year's challenge is based on a real life-event. In the simulation, a spy balloon from unknown origin is caught capturing and transmitting signals, and the competitors have to break into the network and shut it down. The competition is broken into nine tasks with escalating point values. UNG has 209 students competing so far, with 15 having completed the first six tasks.
After leading for most of the event's first 40 days, UNG has more than 63,500 points and is less than 13,000 points behind current leader Georgia Tech. UNG's students and faculty are working hard to make up the difference and earn the university's third NSA Codebreaker Challenge victory after wins in 2019 and 2020. Other recent finishes in the event include second place in 2021, third place in 2018, and sixth place in 2022.
"It's great to see our students competing nationally in some of the biggest cyber competitions and finishing in the top five or 10 regularly," Dr. Bryson Payne, professor of computer science and coordinator of student cyber programs, said. "It's a testament to how hard our students work, how well our professors prepare them and how much extra work our students are willing to put into these competitions."
It's great to see our students competing nationally in some of the biggest cyber competitions and finishing in the top five or 10 regularly. It's a testament to how hard our students work, how well our professors prepare them and how much extra work our students are willing to put into these competitions.
UNG professor of computer science and coordinator of student cyber programs
UNG cyber students also benefit from professional development, conference opportunities and competition support from the university's Institute for Cyber Operations, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
Tyler Vaughan, a junior from Covington, Georgia, pursuing a degree in cybersecurity, said his reverse engineering course with Payne helped prepare him for the NSA Codebreaker Challenge. Vaughan has also enjoyed learning about databases through the competition. He said he and his fellow UNG students are hoping to break through on some of the contest's tougher challenges soon and regain the lead.
"We're very competitive," Vaughan said. "That gives us motivation to keep going."
In addition to the strong showing thus far in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge this fall, UNG students have also excelled in the National Cyber League (NCL). Paul Kim finished second individually in NCL and was on the first-place team with friends from other universities. A UNG team of Scott Fitzgerald, Houstoun Hall, Benjamin Huckaba, Tyson Langford, Sawyer Shepherd, Scott Snow, and Vaughan took third place at NCL. The second-place team was from SANS Institute.
Payne said the NCL took a couple of weekends for students, piling on top of hundreds of hours spent on the NSA event, which launched Sept. 28.
Kim, president of the CyberHawks student club, is grateful to be competing for the top spot in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge after the strong NCL showing.
"It's a testament to our cyber program and the wide range of topics it covers," Kim said.
