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SoCal Cyber Cup Competition

Posted on by Meske, David J.

Palomar College recently competed in the SoCal Cyber Cup earning 2nd place in the Community College division and 4th overall. In the Finals Round, competitors operated as a blue team and were required to monitor and protect 5 hosts running various services such as HTTP, FTP, MySQL, REDIS, and Node.js. Over a 4-hour period, Palomar’s CyberComets team defended their hosts from an automated red team attack that sought to disrupt these services as well as compromise the operating system with backdoors. In the end, the CyberComets were one of the few teams (1 of 3) that successfully mitigated all of the red team attacks.

The SoCal Cyber Cup has been providing cyber competitions for the past 12 years and this was the first year that the organizers created a community college division. Palomar College intends on participating in future events as well.

If you would like to view the scoreboard from this year’s competition, you can find it at https://cyberskyline.com/events/socalccc/leaderboard/overall/so-cal-cyber-cup-final-round.

 

National Cyber League and SoCal Cyber Cup Competitions

Posted on by Meske, David J.

As we round out the end of the Spring 2021 semester, our students have been busy with two cyber competitions. This semester, with a lot of new competition, Palomar College was ranked 20th nationally in the NCL Power Rankings. These are the rankings from playing in the National Cyber League (NCL).

A new cybersecurity competition to Palomar College is the SoCal Cyber Cup. This competition has been around for the past 12 years to junior and senior high school students. This year, a new community college division opened up and 7 community colleges competed from Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties. After the preliminary round, Palomar College scored 1st and will be moving on to the Finals round to be held on May 22, 2021.

National Cyber League National Rankings Fall 2020

Posted on by Meske, David J.

Last year, the National Cyber League started publishing national rankings for colleges and universities participating in the National Cyber League competition. Palomar College ranked #55 nationally last year. This year, Palomar College ranked #14 this past Fall season. Congratulations to all of the Palomar students that participated.

To view the Top 100 rankings for Fall 2020, you can visit the following page https://cyberskyline.com/data/power-ranking/fall-2020-national.

 

Welcome to the New Academic Year (2020/2021)

Posted on by Meske, David J.

It’s a new academic year and yes, we will be fully online this year due to COVID-19. Last year the Computer Science and Information Technology department offered the new A.S. Cybersecurity degree program. This year we are adding lab activities in the U.S. Cyber Range (https://www.uscyberrange.org/) For students taking CSNT 181, our Intro to Cybersecurity course, you won’t have to learn Virtual Box and VM imports, you’ll be performing all of your lab activities in AWS. If you are taking CSNT 250 Cyber Defense and Analysis, we have many challenging assignments for you in the NICE Challenge Project (https://nice-challenge.com/). For our CSNT 255 Ethical Hacking Principles students, you will be learning hacking principles and strategies in the U.S. Cyber Range as well as Hack The Box (https://www.hackthebox.eu/)

If you are a student at Palomar College and have an interest in Cybersecurity, come meet like-minded students at the Cybersecurity Club meetings. This year, we will meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at 4pm via Zoom. Access our Discord server for more information and Zoom details. We are a learning club so don’t be shy – everyone starts somewhere.

Additionally, Palomar College competes in the National Cyber League (NCL) every semester. Check out the nationalcyberleague.org for more information. We will be training for the competition in September and October. We lost a few great players to the University of Arizona due to graduations. We should ask that they be red-shirted for a year (sports reference) as we intend on maintaining our Top 40 National Standing. Contact me if you are interested in competing with us or want to learn about ethical hacking. If you are a former CyberPatriot competitor, this competition will be a good way to continue your training.

Palomar College Program Mapper

Posted on by Meske, David J.

Interested in a new field that is considered ESSENTIAL? Interested in working for an employer that may allow you to work from home? Check out Palomar College’s Program Mapper for STEM Programs. Programs include Cybersecurity, Data Analytics, Information Technology, Cisco Networking, Web Development, and others. Learn what positions you can apply for, the average salary, and the expected growth of positions in these fields. Here’s a link to the Cybersecurity Program. Cybersecurity Program Map at Palomar College

National Cyber League Fall 2019

Posted on by Meske, David J.

The Fall 2019 semester has come and gone and Palomar College’s CryptoComets cybersecurity team hit even more records this semester. In fact, we had 3 teams compete in the National Cyber League Fall 2019 competition. We had 17 students compete almost doubling our participation from the previous semester. Our teams consisted of multi-year NCL veterans as well as first-timers and they all did great. So well that Palomar College moved up in the NCL rankings to #37 nationally from #55 last semester.

Where will we rank for Spring 2020? Who knows, but we will continue making strides in educating our students to be the best cybersecurity professional they can be because they are Palomar Powered!

For a look at the National Cyber League Fall 2019 rankings, click here.

National Cyber League Competition National Rankings

Posted on by Meske, David J.

The National Cyber League recently released their first-ever national rankings of academic institutions producing new cybersecurity professionals. Palomar College has been participating in the NCL cybersecurity competition for nearly 2 years now. I am proud to announce that nationally, Palomar College ranks #55 (based on over 400 academic institutions) and #20 amongst institutions in the western U.S.

For more information on the national rankings, click here.

CyberWatch West

Posted on by Meske, David J.

Palomar College is now a member of CyberWatch West, which will soon be the National Cybersecurity Training & Education Center (NCYTE). NCYTE is an organization of hundreds of high schools, colleges and universities determined to promote cybersecurity in higher education as well as provide expertise in cyber defense. Quickly becoming a national organization with members across the continental U.S., the NCYTE supports both faculty in cybersecurity curriculum development as well as students in resources geared toward cybersecurity knowledge and career transition. Palomar College looks forward to working with NCYTE as we contribute to the cybersecurity education and training needs in San Diego and move toward certification as a Center for Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-2Y).

 

Welcome to 2019/2020 Academic Year

Posted on by Meske, David J.

It’s a new academic year and there is so much going on. This year the Computer Science and Information Technology department is offering the new A.S. Cybersecurity degree program. This program will feature two new courses in cybersecurity – Cyber Defense and Ethical Hacking. If you are interested in Cybersecurity, these classes will kick start you in the right direction. The number of cybersecurity positions in San Diego is rapidly increasing. I’m reading new postings almost daily. A few companies in the area that are hiring include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Proficio, PlayStation (Sony), Apple, QualComm, FICO, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Intuit, and many others. Now is the time to be part of this growing and fascinating field.

If you are a student at Palomar College and have an interest in Cybersecurity, come meet like-minded students at the Cybersecurity Club meetings. We meet on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays at 4pm in MD-220. We are a learning club so don’t be shy – everyone starts somewhere.

Additionally, Palomar College competes in the National Cyber League (NCL) every semester. Check out the nationalcyberleague.org for more information. We will be training for the competition in September and October. Contact me if you are interested in competing with us or want to learn about ethical hacking. If you are a former CyberPatriot competitor, this competition will be a good way to continue your training.

Palomar College A.S. Cybersecurity Degree is Official

Posted on by Meske, David J.

Great news!  We have been notified that the A.S. Cybersecurity degree has been officially approved to start in Fall 2019. Our first graduates with an A.S. Cybersecurity degree will be at the May 2020 Commencement. Two new courses are being offered in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 respectively to students that are ready to graduate.

CSNT 250 Cyber Defense and Analysis (Fall semesters)

Evaluation of cybersecurity team functions as it pertains to the analysis of organizational defensive measures, threat management, and incident response. Topics covered include threat reconnaissance, securing a corporate network, vulnerability management, identity management, and secure software coding. Students will learn the process of securing a corporate network, identifying vulnerabilities that can be exploited and responding to a cybersecurity incident.

CSNT 255 Ethical Hacking Principles (Spring semesters)

In-depth analysis and hands-on practical experience in computer and network security concepts from an ethical hacking perspective. Various topics include penetration testing methodology, mobile platform attacks, and cloud computing defenses. Students will be taught the five phases of ethical hacking, which include reconnaissance; gaining access; account enumeration; maintaining access, and covering your tracks. Students will learn how to assess the security posture of an organization and use the same techniques malicious hackers use to identify vulnerabilities and remediate problems before a successful attack is perpetrated. Technical knowledge and critical thinking skills will be developed to explore the challenges and legal issues of cybersecurity testing.