Raytheon Sponsors Hacker Challenge for CIS
Representatives from Raytheon's Security Innovation division visited the CIS department on February 23 and 24, and hosted a "capture the flag" (CtF) hacker challenge event for students interested in learning more about practical computer security skills. The challenge was a great success with 8 teams competing and some excellent scores put up by our students. Our visitors were suitably impressed. "In most of our travels, students have no clue what exploitation is about or even heard of a buffer overflow. Almost everyone we talked to at Oregon had either been exposed to the subject or had written such exploits themselves," said Raytheon software engineer Christopher Stricklan.
Drawing on the enthusiasm from this event, students in the department have set up an offensive computing club, with the hope of competing in future regional CtFs in the future while picking up extremely valuable skills along the way and having some fun. If you are interested in being part of the club, contact Joe Pletcher, the club organizer, or Prof. Kevin Butler, the faculty sponsor, for more details.