March 2012 eNotes

A team of CU-Boulder computer science students earned second place in the Rocky Mountain Regional Cyber Defense Competition held March 2-3 at Regis University. It was CU's first time entering the event, which represents the first round of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition launched in 2005. The CU team included six undergraduates—Brian Carlsen, Mike Kaoudis, Richard Green, Jiran Dowlati, Anthony Cantor, and Skylar Sokol,--along with graduate students Brent Smith and Landon Spear.

The competition involves teams securing, maintaining, and defending computing infrastructure similar to that of a small corporation over the course of two or three days while undergoing attacks from a volunteer "red" team and responding to requests from competition administrators. Teams are scored on their abilities to maintain corporate computing infrastructure, to defend against cyber attacks, and to respond to all of the requests from their fictional "boss."

The students' performance at the event can be traced back to the "Ethical Hacking" class taught last spring by associate computer science professor John Black with support from graduate student Ali Alzabarah. The popular class led to the creation of an ethical hacking student group led by Alzabarah, from which the members of the team were drawn. Black is scheduled to teach the course again this fall, and students plan to enter the competition again next year.

> Learn more at Cyber Defense

Message from Amy Metz,
Engineering Development

As CU faculty and staff, our work is the heart and soul of the university. We inspire students through learning, teaching, advising, and helping them develop into successful members of society. We support the efforts of the university and want it to be the best possible institution it can be.

The College of Engineering family, including faculty, staff, and graduating seniors, will be encouraged to make a gift to the university to support the Creating Futures Campaign – the largest campaign in CU's history. With one gift of any size, you can make a difference. Remember, all gifts matter and we hope for significant participation.

Each department or program will identify one priority for funding. Once these departmental and program enrichment areas are selected and approved, Dean Davis will match gifts for these particular purposes 1:1. That means gifts of $10, $25, $100, $500 on up to a maximum of $3,000 per individual can be matched! Dean Davis is also offering a special match for major and bequest gifts.

The Engineering Development Team will be officially launching the campaign in early April. Stay tuned for email messages and information packets to be distributed soon. If you have questions about making your gift, please contact Amy Metz in the Development Office to have a confidential conversation at 303-492-4199 or email Amy Metz.