Cyberdawn – A Diverse Cyber Exercise – Part I

Cyber Exercise

Over this past weekend I attended Cyberdawn, a cyber exercise that was hosted by Battlefield High School in Haymarket, Virginia.

Sidebar: What is a Cyber Exercise?

“A cyber exercise is a live computer network attack and defense event. A typical exercise runs at least one day for a small team and up to five days for large organizations or multiple teams. Teams generally fall into two categories: attackers (Red Team) and defenders (Blue Team). Defenders are scored on their ability to keep their IT systems up and functional in support of their business processes. Attackers are scored on their ability to disrupt business operations.”
See http://www.whitewolfsecurity.com for more information.

One of the first things that impressed me about this event was the diverse population of players and attendees. The defending and attacking teams were represented by high school students, college students, industry professionals and cadets in the Army and Air Force academies. I met people ranging from Army captains trying to make the world a more secure place, to the team leader of the Defcon CTF organizers. The Army captain was in attendence to observe the event and talk to people in the field to better understand information security. John Bos, team leader for “sk3wl0fr00t”, was in attendance to help out as a volunteer and (continue reading...)