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Whitehatters Student Computer Security Club Competes in National Cybersecurity Competition

November 8, 2018

On Saturday, October 27th the University of South Florida’s Whitehatters Student Computer Security Club competed along with 12 other teams in the 2018 Raymond James Financial Capture the Flag competition. This annual competition brings together student groups from across the United States to compete against each other in a "capture the flag" style cybersecurity challenge. The goal of the competition is to raise awareness among college students of cybersecurity internship and career opportunities at Raymond James Financial, as well as to help the students hone their critical thinking and problem solving skills. This year’s competition saw teams from as far away as Texas (Texas A&M), Pennsylvania (Penn State), and Maryland (John Hopkins) join several Florida institutions, such as Florida State and the University of Central Florida, in competing for the $17,500 in prize money. This year’s completion also had the Federal Bureau of Investigation enter a professional team of agents to see how the students “stacked up” against the pros. The Whitehatters finished in 9th place (out of 13), with UCF taking first, Georgia Tech second, and John Hopkins University third.

The team members were Farooq Shaikh, Kevin Orr, Kevin Dennis, Jacob Kesler, and Christopher Greenland. The faculty advisor is Instructor Jason Lewis. The USF Whitehatters team came in 9th with 575 points.