2015 Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition
(PCDC) High School Intro
February 2015
Jeff Sweeney PCDC Director
Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic (SSC Atlantic)
58300 Information Assurance Policy & Risk Management
For PCDC Planning Purposes Only
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PCDC 2015
PCDC will be at
Trident Technical College, College Center
Saturday,11April 2015: High Schools
Sunday 12 April: Colleges
Monday, 13 April: Pro Day: Gov’t and Corp
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Our Goals
▼Science, Technology, Engineer and Mathematics (STEM) Outreach: This
competition will energize local high schools & colleges to focus on curriculum
development for the type of technical skills that we need in today’s fast paced &
challenging cyber environment. This will include computer security/information
assurance technical skills that are often taught only at the post graduate college level
but need to be introduced at a much earlier age.
▼Recruitment: This competition is an excellent opportunity to find promising
technical talent coming out of local schools. SPAWARSYSCEN Atlantic (SSCAtlantic) and local technology companies have a chance to see the students’ technical
skills in a friendly competition . Valuable practical experience is gained by students in
a sector that needs more talented workers to meet growing cyber security challenges in
the business environment.
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2015 Participating Schools
Collegiate – Sunday, 12 April

Clemson–1st place 2014
South Carolina –2nd place 2014
College of Charleston– place 2014
3rd
Charleston Southern University
Trident Technical College
ECPI
South Carolina State University
U The Citadel
High School – Saturday, 11 April
Florence Career Ctr – 1st place 2014
Summerville – 2nd place 2014
Wando – 3rd place 2014
Qualified through CyberPatriot
Ashley Ridge - Summerville
Stratford – Goose Creek
Lowcountry Tech AcademyCharleston
South Aiken
Palmetto Scholars Academy –
North Charleston (new)
Saturday, April 11, 2015
High School Competition Schedule
 7:00 am – 7:30 am:
Registration
 7:15 am – 7:20 am:
Team location drawing
 7:20 am – 7:30 am:
Blue Team Briefing
 7:30 am – 7:45 am:
Opening Ceremony
 7:45 am – 9:15 am:
Initial Injects / Secure the Network
 9:15 am – 3:30 pm
Operate Network Under Hacker Attacks
 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm:
Red Team members visit Blue Teams
 4:30 pm – 5:00 pm:
Break/View Sponsor Booths
 5:00 pm – 5:30 pm:
Blue Team Presentations
 5:30 pm – 5:45 pm:
Red/Gold Team Debrief: Common Mistakes
 5:45 pm – 6:20 pm:
Awards / Closing Ceremony
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The Competition
▼High School Blue Teams will be responsible for operating a small network while
protecting the network infrastructure from Red Team (hacker) attacks. Blue Teams
will be scored for accomplishing administrative and business tasks while maintaining
network/service availability (such as mail, database and web servers) as well as their
ability to detect and respond to threats. Students must be able to configure and protect
their network. Teams must also be able to respond to business requests such as the
addition or removal of services, and balance security needs against business needs.
▼Competition scenario this year is that teams will be operating a small on-line gaming
company. The games can be played on a wireless tablet. The previous IT staff was
fired for leaving the network insecure and poorly configured, though operable. You
will have 90 minutes to secure and fix the network before hackers attack.
▼Each team will have 6 laptops to with which to work
▼Scoring is equally balanced between:
▼Maintaining services such as SSH, HTTP, FTP etc. which can be viewed on
your network or up on the “big display”
▼ Performing timed business operations (called injects). There will be no partial
credit for late injects this year.
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The Competition (cont.)
▼Injects are tasks that must be performed during the competition to run your
business/network. Points are scored for successfully completing injects in
time. Teams will receive several initial injects, plus several injects per hour.
▼Competition is continuous, teams can break for lunch and snacks at their
leisure.
▼Sponsor booths from local technology companies and colleges will be set
up in the venue and can be visited before and after the competition or during
breaks.
▼ An overhead display can be viewed by all during the competition to see the
status of each team’s services to see if their network is currently functional or
if the hackers (or the team themselves) have taken them down.
▼Each Team must provide a short brief at the end of the day on what they
learned during the competition.
▼It is absolutely essential that all teams read the Blue Team Packet that they
will receive just prior to the competition. It has passwords and other essential
information.
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The Competition (cont.)
▼Each team will consist of :
3-6 students
1 advisor (not allowed to help team or be in team area unless brought in
by SPAWAR mentor on a case by case basis)
1 Blue Team Mentor provided by SPAWAR (hands-off)
Once competition has started, no alternates can participate
▼Recommend that only a few members of each team eat at one time
▼No food in competition area
▼Request that those interested in internships, provide a resume, more
details later
▼There will be no hacking attempts by Blue teams against anyone: will
result in immediate disqualification. This is a Cyber Defense competition.
▼Recommend that a team lead be assigned that can track and assign
responsibilities for injects and monitoring services based on team
members’ strengths.
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The Competition (cont)
▼Each member of the winning team will get money towards a scholarship. Last
year was $500 each. 529 Account brochures will be available.
▼One MVP for the competition that shows leadership and technical skills will
receive money towards a scholarship. Last year it was $1000.
▼Winning team gets to keep a large “Stanley Cup” like trophy for one year and
have their team added to base along with the year that they won
▼Each member of winning team will get other awards such as camo backpacks
▼Top three teams get school trophy and individual medals
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The Competition
▼Top three teams will receive camo duffle bag from AFCEA
▼You will get an opportunity to meet with local technology companies
▼You will receive an opportunity to learn marketable in-demand technical skills
▼Challenge Coins for each participant
▼T-shirt for each participant
▼Lunch and Snacks during the day are included
▼There will be media coverage
▼Family and friends are welcome to view all days of this competition.
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The Competition
▼New this year:
Most injects will be delivered via Email that will off limits to the hackers
The scoring part of the competition will end an hour earlier. This time will
be replaced by a session where the Red team members that were assigned to
attack your team will sit down with you and go over your questions and
some of their attacks and how you could have prevented them. A great
learning opportunity!
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What we need from you
▼Firm commitment to participate – you need to be at as many mentoring
sessions as possible – preferably, all of them
▼Recommend all interested students be invited to be involved but may
need to be restricted for hands-on prep and only 6 students can be on team.
▼Registration Packet (posted on PCDC website), includes
Team Registration form due back by 26 Feb: Must be signed, indicating you
have read the Preparation Package, including rules.
Also need lunch choice and T-shirt size
▼Consent and Release Form Signed by parent that includes photo/video
release forms
▼Be on time to the competition, no later than 7 AM. Prior to start of
opening ceremonies, teams will receive their pre-brief and team captains
will draw for team locations.
▼Up to 8 appropriate music selections that we may play for your school
during the competition
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HS Blue Team Mentoring Curriculum
▼ High School Mentoring will begin first week of February
▼ Remote Virtual hands on training hosted at TTC. Schools will
need password. Hands on sessions will be scheduled but system
can be accessed 24x7.
▼ Mentoring Curriculum
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Intro to IT Security
Intro to Windows Security
How to Mitigate
Networking Fundamentals/Password Security
Unix Operating Systems
Business practices/injects/scoring
Reviewing Blue Team and Preparation Packets with schools
Review of Critical areas (optional)
Make up sessions, (ASA?)
Critical Area Review
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Important Links
▼PCDC webpage: PCDC-SC.com
▼PCDC Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/PalmettoCyberDefenseCompetition
▼PCDC Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalmettoCyber
▼Cyber Patriot: http://www.uscyberpatriot.org
▼AFCEA: http://charleston.afceachapter.org/
▼#PCDC14
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Wrap Up
▼ We are looking for motivated, enthusiastic students willing to
put in the time and effort to prepare for and compete in an
exciting, rewarding and challenging Palmetto Cyber Defense
Competition
▼ Questions?
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