They call themselves Layer 8—a club that strives to go beyond the existing seven layers of cybersecurity by learning different defensive and offensive computer and network security protocols. And although they have only been an official club since May 2012, they have already been making a name for themselves in cybersecurity competitions.
Last March, an eight-member team participated in the three-day Western Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (WRCCDC) in Pomona, competing against 12 other teams. In the contest’s scenario, each team is hired by a fictitious company and given a network of desktops, laptops, servers, virtualized systems and networking hardware to administer and secure. The team has two hours of “safety” to determine what applications and services are on the network before a “red team” of hackers tries to break in and exploit the system. Points are awarded for services staying up, while points are deducted if attackers successfully enter and disrupt the systems. CSUN’s team, which was advised by tutorial coordinator Doris Chaney, placed fifth overall.
In the National Cyber League (NCL) competition, which is a virtual competition, students take part in individual play in the fall and group play in the spring. Last year, 17 CSUN students participated in the individual play competition, and ten of those placed in the top ten. In the group play, which took place in May, the CSUN team made it all the way to the semifinals. The competition is growing rapidly in popularity, with some 30 students registered for NCL this year.