¾«¶«Ó°Òµ

Roughly midway through this year's , the University of North Georgia's (¾«¶«Ó°Òµ) students and faculty are in second place in the nationwide cybersecurity competition that includes 410 universities and colleges. The event runs through Dec. 21.

This year's challenge is based on a real life-event. In the simulation, a spy balloon from unknown origin is caught capturing and transmitting signals, and the competitors have to break into the network and shut it down. The competition is broken into nine tasks with escalating point values. ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ has 209 students competing so far, with 15 having completed the first six tasks.

After leading for most of the event's first 40 days, ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ has more than 63,500 points and is less than 13,000 points behind current leader Georgia Tech. ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ's students and faculty are working hard to make up the difference and earn the university's third NSA Codebreaker Challenge victory after wins in 2019 and 2020. Other recent finishes in the event include second place in 2021, third place in 2018, and sixth place in 2022.

"It's great to see our students competing nationally in some of the biggest cyber competitions and finishing in the top five or 10 regularly," Dr. Bryson Payne, professor of computer science and coordinator of student cyber programs, said. "It's a testament to how hard our students work, how well our professors prepare them and how much extra work our students are willing to put into these competitions."

It's great to see our students competing nationally in some of the biggest cyber competitions and finishing in the top five or 10 regularly. It's a testament to how hard our students work, how well our professors prepare them and how much extra work our students are willing to put into these competitions.

Dr. Bryson Payne

¾«¶«Ó°Òµ professor of computer science and coordinator of student cyber programs

"We're very competitive," Vaughan said. "That gives us motivation to keep going."

In addition to the strong showing thus far in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge this fall, ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ students have also excelled in the National Cyber League (NCL). Paul Kim finished second individually in NCL and was on the first-place team with friends from other universities. A ¾«¶«Ó°Òµ team of Scott Fitzgerald, Houstoun Hall, Benjamin Huckaba, Tyson Langford, Sawyer Shepherd, Scott Snow, and Vaughan took third place at NCL. The second-place team was from SANS Institute.

Payne said the NCL took a couple of weekends for students, piling on top of hundreds of hours spent on the NSA event, which launched Sept. 28.

Kim, president of the CyberHawks student club, is grateful to be competing for the top spot in the NSA Codebreaker Challenge after the strong NCL showing.

"It's a testament to our cyber program and the wide range of topics it covers," Kim said.