Cybersecurity student earns second place in Deloitte Cyber Threat Competition

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Liam Geyer, a third-year student majoring in cybersecurity analytics and operations in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), placed second at the Deloitte Foundation Cyber Threat Competition, held Feb. 15-17 at Deloitte University. He was one of 60 students, from among more than 1,000 competitors, to advance to the second and final round.

The Cyber Threat Competition is facilitated by the Deloitte Advisory cyber risk services practice to help college students develop the skills needed to address increasingly sophisticated cyber risks in the marketplace, according to the company’s website. The program provides students with the opportunity to experience a real-world cyber incident and determine how to respond by using their technical, critical thinking, communication and problem-solving skills.

“This was a great opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and focus more on the business aspects of cybersecurity,” said Geyer, who is enrolled in IST’s integrated undergraduate graduate program and serves as the vice president of the Penn State Competitive Cyber Security Organization (CCSO).

The first round of the competition involved a security questionnaire and cybersecurity "Capture the Flag" (CTF) challenge, in which participants find and navigate vulnerabilities to find a "flag" or piece of information. The top two students from each school, along with other high-scoring participants, moved on to round two, which included another CTF, an incident response wargame — which involves competitors gaining or preventing access in a computer system — and an executive brief.

Second-round participants were randomly assigned to teams with students from other colleges. Geyer served as his team’s detect and respond specialist for the wargame. In this role, he was responsible for forensic investigation and technical response to cyberattacks.

“The Cyber Threat Competition was a fun counterpart to the more technical competitions I’ve competed in, like the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition,” he said.

Jenna Fox, a third-year IST student majoring in cybersecurity analytics and operations and president of CCSO, also advanced to the second round of the competition.

“This was an awesome opportunity to hone my skills in the business-oriented aspects of the cybersecurity industry,” she said. “I had the opportunity to solve CTF challenges, work through an incident response wargame, and present our findings to a C-suite audience, experiences that I will take with me as I move toward my professional career.”

Last month, Fox, Geyer and their CCSO teammates placed fourth in the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, their best performance to date. They will compete in the regional finals next month.