In February 2020 (right before the COVID-19 lock-down), three of my peers and I headed to Dallas, TX to compete against 14 other universities in the Deloitte Foundation Cyber Threat Competition. Over 2 tense days, we participated in a CTF-like technical competition as well as a paneled business presentation, ultimately nabbing a 2nd place finish and a $4,000 scholarship.
A competition usually marketed to students at the School of Management (SOM) at Binghamton, my friends (Lance Cheng, Henry Burns, and Jordan Levin) and I heard about the opportunity through a mutual friend at SOM. After a brief questionnaire application, we were informed that we had outperformed our peers and earned spots at the second stage of the competition in Deloitte University campus in Dallas against 14 other universities including Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and USC.
Our first event consisted of a simulated break-in at a fictitious company. Our goal was to figure out what data was stolen, and who did it. We placed first in this competition, using our diverse skill set. Next, we were tasked with preparing a presentation for stakeholders regarding the data we had procured. We then gave this presentation to a panel of judges who critiqued our performance. Ultimately our overall performance was then scored, netting us our second-place finish.