Students Organize Successful Cybersecurity Competition

Seven students developed, organized and carried out a three-day, international ‘capture the flag’ cybersecurity competition the first week of April that drew more than 2,000 competitors from around the world.

Tiffanie Petersen, Isaiah Thomas, Carl Mann, Blake Janes, Kourtnee Fernalld, Josh Breininger and Ivan Hernandez were behind the event, Space Heroes CTF. Its name paid homage to Florida Tech’s space heritage, and the prize for winning teams included signed certificates from astronaut Drew Morgan.

The three-day competition’s 1,444 teams, including three of the top 10 international teams, were tasked with solving 53 problems. Only two teams succeeded in solving all the challenges. Dakota State’s Magi team edged out the University of Central Florida’s HackUCF in the academic division. 

“Building the competition took a considerable amount of leadership, organization and hard work by these students,” said T.J. O’Connor, who lead’s Florida Tech’s cybersecurity program. “We all can be incredibly proud of them.”

Learn more about Florida Tech’s Cyber Operations concentration at https://research.fit.edu/cyber/.