Champlain College, (including a lot of Leahy Center members!) were finalists in the Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NECCDC).
The competition was hosted at Pace University in New York. The theme for 2024 was “Critical Controls, Protecting our Infrastructure”.
As for the competition itself, it is set into three teams: a Red, Blue, and White team. The Blue Team is made up of students from different colleges. Their goal: creating the strongest network infrastructure, simulating a business (such as power grids, transportation networks, etc). Ethical hackers and pen testers make up The Red Team. They attempt to break through Blue Team’s network and try to sabotage it to the best of their abilities. The White Team oversees this event as the moderators.
Champlain College made it to the finals round, competing with Northeastern University, Rochester Institute of Technology, UMass Lowell and Amherst, Syracuse University, Roger Williams University, University of New Haven, and The University of Maine.
A full list of participants include: Adam Goldstein, Joe Eastman, Aidan Smith, Laila Martinez, Ainsley Smith, Oliver Mustoe, Morgan Connors, Parker Soares, Matt Compton, Abijah Buttendorf, James Nicholls, Liam Gugliotta, Michael Ng and Paul Gleason.
PROFILE: Michael Ng
Michael is a Computer Networking and Cybersecurity major with a graduation year of 2026. Currently, he works at The Leahy Center as an IT Engineer since Spring of 2023. He joined NECCDC in order to participate in a competition that would give him an opportunity to strengthen his cybersecurity skills, as well as gain new ones.
“In my experience, one of the most rewarding parts about participating in NECCDC was being able to see all of our practices and plans pay off during the competition. I was proud that I was able to use my technical computer knowledge from both class and The Leahy Center to help secure and maintain our network services for as long as possible.” Michael said, “Also, I liked being able to travel to other schools to compete.. I found this to be a great networking opportunity with other students and employers.”
His main role within the competition he secured critical networking systems on the Windows servers. He made sure they were online and accessible for the competition’s simulated clients. Between regionals and finals, the team would combine their skills to strategize. During the competition, he was tasked with protecting the security of the network from the Red Team. All the while, he completed simulated business tasks
“[I] just wanted to give a huge shoutout to everyone on the team!” Michael said, “I’ve learned so much over the competition and it was fun being able to compete with everyone this year!”
By Cierra Rossi ’27, Writing and Publishing
Cierra Rossi has been passionate about writing since she was young, specializing in creative writing and story-focused pieces.