Challenged to find hidden “flags” in several computer puzzles against other college students from the state, six students from Campbell University’s Security and Computing department took first place in a “Hack the Box” event held by the North Carolina State Emergency Management Operation Center in Raleigh on April 6.
The winning students — Hunter Harrell, Naithan Westcot, Steven Maret, Evaline Crook, Varun Nomula and Katia Chakra — tackled a variety of cybersecurity challenges in the competition, including web exploitation, cryptography and reverse engineering. The “flags” they were tasked to find were long strings of random letters and special characters, according to Maret, that tested the team’s ability to hack into systems (legally), analyze computer programs and find files. Maret compared the competition to a “digital scavenger hunt for hackers and cybersecurity enthusiasts.”
“It’s fun. It’s fast paced. And it’s a great way to learn real-world cybersecurity skills,” he said. “I think our team was successful, because we’ve built a really solid foundation through our Cybersecurity program [at Campbell]. We’ve spent a lot of time not just learning theory, but actually applying it through projects that we have done in our classes.”
A cybersecurity major minoring in homeland security and information technology and security, Maret said the competition is a great training experience, because it gives hands-on exposure to real-world tools and techniques.
“It really sharpened our problem-solving skills and gave us a taste of what it’s like to think like an attacker, which is exactly what I want to do in my career,” he said.
The team was led by Dr. Amanda M. Sharp Parker, chair of the Security and Computing Department and associate professor of Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at Campbell.