Insights from former competition participants
Mark Collao
Your name and home town?
Mark Collao, Chicago, IL.
Your job title, and current location?
Federal Enterprise Risk Services Consultant (Rosslyn)
The College or University you attended?
DePaul University
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
I wanted to take my studies and experience in computer/network security and put it into use…what better to do it than in a national competition. Also, my network security club was mostly comprised of NCCDC participants.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
Good exposure to the other team and vendors. Everyone was friendly but competition was still heavy on both sides.
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
It led to several interviews and offers from leading security/consulting companies which expanded my options on where to start my career.
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
Yes, because it will definitely boost the computer science or network programs of each school by motivating students to look further into the technology than just what is learned in class. Most of the students that participated in CCDC were top of their class and most active in the network security community.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
Patch your box and change default passwords!
Clifton Mulkey
Your name and home town?
My name is Clifton Mulkey, and I am originally from Amarillo TX.
Your job title, and current location?
I am a Consultant in the Enterprise Risk Services practice based in Houston, TX. Specifically I work in the Security & Privacy Market offering.
The College or University you attended?
I went to school for my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Mathematics at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, NM.
I obtained my Master's degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
I first found out about CCDC and our school's Cyber Defense team through a professor during graduate school. I decided to try it out because I knew I was interested in a career in computer security. I was immediately hooked when I experienced the fast-paced learning, hands-on practice, and team development that came through training for and participating in the CCDC competitions.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
I was able to compete in two Regional CCDC competitions (2010,2011) in College Station, TX. The second year I also had the priveledge of being the team leader. The competition was fast-paced, often stressful, occasionally frustrating, but always fun. Sometimes it seems they want you to figure out how to deal with 6 months worth of security problems in 1 weekend! Overall, the competitions helped me learn how to analyze and make decisions quicker, rely on my team members, and grow my technical skills.
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
Participating in the CCDC and similar competitions with my school's cyber defense team was a direct channel to the career I have today. I made my first contact with Deloitte through a similar team competition called Panopoly in San Antonio, TX. Aside from the valuable recruiting contact, participating and preparing for the CCDC allowed me to gain some important skills to bolster my resume, which eventually opened the door for me at Deloitte.
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
I think participating in programs like the CCDC is one of the most benificial things a student can do for their career. The job market is still tough and there are thousands of college students graduation and looking for their first career every year. I think the CCDC is a valuable way for students to learn practical skills and differentiate themselves to capture the attention of prospective employers.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
I think the most important thing to remember is that winning is not the most valuable part of the competition. Take a little time to forget about the points and ask a lot of questions from the facilitators, sponsors, team members, and coaches. I think the true value in the competition is the experience, knowledge, and relationships you can gain to help jumpstart your career.
Gustave (Gus) Walzer
Your name and home town?
Name: Gustave Walzer
Home Town: Westport, California
Your job title, and current location?
Job Title: Enterprise Risk Services Consultant
Location: Rosslyn office, Arlington Virginia
The College or University you attended?
College: Indiana Institute of Technology
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
Admittedly the first year of competition my academic advisor, who was the state director, pretty much conscripted me. After getting a taste of the competition, the stress, the deep technical knowledge required, and the scenarios, I kept going back for more. In the end I competed all 4 years and then changed roles and served as the Academic Advisor for a year.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
The year that I was a competitor at the national level, 2006, I encountered a very high level of competition from the other teams competing and from the tasks that we were assigned to complete during competition. In 2010, I was an Academic Advisor for the Indiana Institute of Technology team that made it to the National competition, and during this year it was much more of just fretting about the team doing in the room, and interacting with some of the other academic advisors and see how other schools conducted their teams.
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
NCCDC really showed me that you can be the most technically gifted person in the world, but it really means little if you are unable to work with you fellow team mates. Also, it showed me that there has to be structure around how a team operates, and that it is a very good idea to plan out and role play within the team to work things out before they become an issue.
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
Personally, I think that the NCCDC would be beneficial to anyone who participates whether school or private industry. Schools from the perspective that the people involved—students and advisors—will be able to work in a close to real world environment, and be subject to common pressures that come up in business. Private industry stands to gain a better insight in the current abilities of students and a good arena to pull talent from.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
My advice to this years’ competitors would be to remember your basics. It’s cool to have the most technologically sound system in the world but if the fundamentals are skipped it’s all for naught.
Daniel Week
Your name and home town?
Daniel Week, Reno, Nevada
Your job title, and current location?
Federal Enterprise Risk Services Consultant, Rosslyn, VA
The College or University you attended?
University of Nevada, Reno (Undergraduate)
Oklahoma State University (Graduate)
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
I was a part of the club that supported the NCCDC competitors, although because the team was full I did not participate at the times I was at Oklahoma State University.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
N/A
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
The participation in the club that trained individuals to be prepared for the NCCDC helped me find the opportunity to work at Deloitte. I would say it was great impact on my career choice.
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
I believe it would be very beneficial, I didn’t even know about it until I went to Oklahoma State University.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
If you are new to NCCDC as a team, be prepared to learn a great deal. Oklahoma State University has a team now that trains and recruits members into the Information Security and Assurance Club (ISAC) and then additionally trains for the NCCDC. I would also say that if you walk away from your first experience feeling overwhelmed, that it’s natural and to prepare for the next competition.
Paul Frederick
Your name and home town?
Paul Frederick, Louisville Kentucky
Your job title, and current location?
Enterprise Risk Services Consultant – Technology Risk, Arlington, VA
The College or University you attended?
University of Louisville
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
I have participated in the NCCDC Competitions for the past five seasons. My involvement started when myself and a few friends read an email about it, and decided to petition support from our university to develop the resources and a team. Our reasoning behind wanting to develop and work with Cyber defense was because we all knew that it held a very important role in immerging technical challenges. We worked over the years to better develop our skills both technically as well as our communication and team building. Using all of our combined talents and focusing on teamwork and collaboration, we were able to attain National status for four out of the five years we competed in the competition.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
Every year that I had the opportunity to go to San Antonio, I always am amazed by the amount of talent that exists in the red teams (attackers), as well as how the team dynamic changes while in a pressure situation. The biggest experience out of the San Antonio competition is always realizing the influence of security on the infrastructure, and developing strategies to best combat the multiple attack vectors seen by the attackers. Simulating major failures and curve balls, helps bring to light situations in the real world were stress can affect your performance!
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
I would say that the NCCDC Competition has very much improved the scope of my career. The most important lesson that comes from the competition is that you need to be mindful of the scope of the technology landscape you are dealing with, and willing to embrace large scale challenges by developing a group and providing the right resources to that group.
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
I personally would recommend that all colleges that have either engineering or computer information systems courses, investigate adding this competition as an elective opportunity for their students. This competition gives students (and myself personally), better communication, documentation, stress management, and technical skills which will last forever.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
To the competitors of 2012; I have a few suggestions that I personally believe will help accelerate your team:
Develop good technical writing skills
Develop and integrate a good plan of action with respect to the skillsets in your team
Don’t let one teammate take over a specific sector of the infrastructure. Diversify your assets, and ensure that your teams have redundancy in the different divisions
Be mindful of stress, and its affects. Overcome those problems by practicing the worst case scenarios. Keep focused on the big picture. Don’t let small problems sidestep the larger scope. Practice and simulate real world problems.
Felix Flath
Your name and home town?
Felix Flath
Your job title, and current location?
I am a Technology Risk Consultant based in the DC area
The College or University you attended?
Southern Methodist University
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
I was interested in computer security and SMU was starting a new security interest group. We used the competition as a way to attract interested students and get them to commit time to training and eventually building the student organization.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
It was a really fun weekend. Our team worked really well together so even though we were under a lot of pressure and struggled with some parts of the competition we were able to really enjoy it and do our best.
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
The competition was actually were I applied for a job at Deloitte so I feel it was a fantastic opportunity and I am really glad I was able to participate and take advantage of it.
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
Absolutely, other than it being fun and a great career opportunity, I learned a lot being there and working on the challenges given to our team.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
Make sure your team can work together well. Our team included people with all levels of experience and did really well even though some of our members were pretty new to the sorts of technology we were working with. The only other thing is that it is a long competition and you aren’t going to know how to do everything, don’t sweat it and have fun.
Jeremy Lemmel
Your name and home town?
Jeremy Lemmel – Lanesville, IN
Your job title, and current location?
Enterprise Risk Services Consultant – Washington, DC
The College or University you attended?
Indiana Tech
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
For the experience that cannot be gained anywhere else.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
An intense, stressful, incredibly fun competition
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
Participation in the CCDC competitions gave me some realistic experience of what might happen in a career in Cyber Security
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
If students are interested in Cyber Security this competition can be incredible beneficial.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
Keep your head up, no matter how many services may currently be down.
Arup Neil Banerjee
Your name and home town?
Arup Neil Banerjee
Your job title, and current location?
Technology Risk Consultant, Los Angeles California
The College or University you attended?
San Diego State University and Cal State San Bernardino
Tell us the reason why you participated in the 2011 NCCDC competition?
I participated in the Western Regional CCDC 2011 because I love securing operating systems and programming and was attracted to the opportunity to compete in an ‘eye in the storm’ scenario defending against hackers because it was a new experience to me and sounded exciting. Also the opportunity to network and network with penetration testers and meet recruits from the best companies in the cyber industry was a plus.
What did you experience while in San Antonio?
I was not in San Antonio for the NCCDC, but in Pomona, CA for the WRCCDC2011.
How did your participation in the NCCDC competition impact your career?
It gave me confidence and insight into what the current relative skills were, the mentality, and the ability to work on teams meant for success. I met the recruit who was the catalyst for me joining Deloitte.
Do you think competing in the NCCDC would be beneficial to other students or other schools that don’t currently participate?
I believe that for anyone that wants to be in the cyber security field and has the opportunity to compete in the CCDC, it is a must for advancing your career, meeting the right people, and establishing yourself in the cyber world for future opportunities.
What advice would you give this years’ competitors?
Once you fix something, no need to optimize if you know it is working and secure because you just might break it. Always remember that somewhere, there may be a hole still open even if you think you are secure. Reflect on the strengths and difficulties of the day’s session and improve upon it on the next day’s session. Without team work, there is no way. Complete ALL of the injects. Have fun, and try to relax because you will truly do better. Study the network topologies beforehand. They will probably deviate by about 20 – 30% come the actual competition day, but not by much. Try and practice at least a little bit on each system. Meet the recruits and get to know the projects that they offer because the cyber security world is waiting for you to take your seat, and make your mark. Just Do it.
As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte & Touche LLP, a subsidiary of Deloitte LLP. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.
