Competition
At Cyber@Stout we compete in several industry competitions such as the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) and NCL. We also promote and organize CTF challenges.
What We Do
We participate in various collegiate-level competitions, including the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) and other regional events. Our teams are groups of dedicated students who compete in national cybersecurity competitions. Our team members gain practical skills in network defense, incident response, and teamwork, preparing them for careers in cybersecurity.
Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC)
The CCDC is one of the most prestigious collegiate cybersecurity competitions in the United States. Teams are tasked with managing and defending a realistic corporate network infrastructure while simultaneously keeping critical business services running. A red team of professional penetration testers actively attacks competing teams throughout the event, simulating real-world adversaries.
The competition takes place in a tiered format teams first compete at the regional level, with top finishers advancing to the national championship. Cyber@Stout competes in the North Central Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NCCDC) region, which covers schools across the Midwest.
Competing in CCDC exposes students to hands-on experience with enterprise technologies such as Windows Server, Linux systems, firewalls, and cloud platforms skills that directly translate to careers in cybersecurity operations, incident response, and systems administration.
National Cyber League (NCL)
The NCL is a seasonal cybersecurity competition designed for high school and college students. It focuses on core security skills through a Capture the Flag (CTF) format, covering areas such as log analysis, network traffic analysis, password cracking, open-source intelligence (OSINT), forensics, and web application security.
NCL offers both an individual game and a team game each season, allowing members to compete solo or collaborate with teammates. It's a great opportunity for newer members to build foundational skills while experienced members sharpen their expertise in specialized categories.
Capture the Flag (CTF)
Capture the Flag competitions are cybersecurity puzzle contests where participants solve challenges across categories like cryptography, reverse engineering, binary exploitation, forensics, and web security. CTFs are one of the best ways to learn offensive and defensive security skills in a legal, structured environment.
Cyber@Stout regularly participates in CTF events throughout the year and also organizes internal CTF practice sessions to help members develop their skills. You can browse our past writeups detailed walkthroughs of how we solved challenges on our GitHub.
Join Us
If you're interested in joining Cyber@Stout or any of our competition teams, please reach out to us via our Discord server. We welcome students of all experience levels whether you're just getting started or already have competition experience, there's a place for you on our team. Please note that to compete in CCDC you must be an enrolled UW-Stout student.