UCF Collegiate Cybersecurity team to compete at regional competition

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — As the world turns digital, the need to fill cybersecurity jobs grows.

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The University of Central Florida Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team will compete March 23rd and 24th at the 2024 Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.

The team will compete against seven other teams in the state to show how well they can protect a company’s network.

The team’s captain, Harrison Keating, said he came to UCF just for this moment.

“You have to defend it against real attackers,” Keating said. “We have to defend against them in real time and keep the business operational.

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Their coach and computer science professor, Tom Nedorost, said the skills students learn at this competition will make them stand out to future employers.

“We’re sending our best of our best students,” Nedorost said. “If you want the best cyber graduates that are coming out this year or the next year or so, this is the competition to be at.”

In Florida, there are more than roughly 30,109 unfilled cyber jobs. It’s a gap that can leave companies vulnerable to threats.

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“A human has to decide that, a computer can’t do that, AI still can’t do that,” Nedorost said. “You still need your analysts in your security operation centers at companies to monitor the traffic and determine what are active threats and not.”

In today’s digital day and age these are the students who will one day defend these companies and their data.

“As time goes on companies are more and more interconnected,” Keating said. “They have more and more of a digital presence. Everything on a computer can be hacked in one way or another.”

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Two other state schools, the University of Florida and University of South Florida, also made the cut for the southeast competition. The winner will then move on to the national competition to compete against students from all over the country.

More information about UCF’s Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition Team can be found here. Read about the school’s Computer Science programs by clicking here.

Click here to learn more about the 2024 Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition.

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