My Experience at the 2024 Minnesota Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition
I had the amazing chance to compete in the 2024 Minnesota Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) on January 27th with my team from Metro State University. We went head-to-head with other schools across the state, defending systems from live attacks.
I was in charge of e-commerce (Ecom) services, keeping them up and running while under attack. It was intense but rewarding, and I learned valuable skills like incident response, system hardening, and network monitoring. I also gained experience in working under pressure, problem-solving, and communicating with my team to prioritize tasks.
One of the highlights was placing 1st in Injects, showcasing our ability to handle business tasks and technical challenges simultaneously. Overall, we placed 4th at the Midwest Regional CCDC, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we accomplished. It was a great experience that made me even more excited about pursuing cybersecurity.
Here’s a photo of our team at the competition – I’m in the front row, bottom left.
P.S. This photo was taken after a grueling 9-hour competition – if you look closely, you can see the collective caffeine crash setting in!