US Cyber Games

Congratulations #TeamUSA for winning 2nd place in the #KunoichiCyberGames in Japan this weekend! The Beacom College of Computer and Cyber Sciences (BCCCS) at Dakota State University (DSU) is especially proud of Gillian Morris and Gwendolyn Vongkasemsiri for representing women in STEM. These two brilliant competitors were selected to be on the first US Women’s Cyber Team. From their website: https://lnkd.in/gu5GPCcq Gender disparity in cybersecurity is a global issue that we, collectively, are turning into an opportunity. Working with teams from Japan, the UK, and Europe, we hosted a unique women’s cyber games exhibition, Kunoichi Cyber Games, at the 2024 Code Blue Conference, on November 14–15 in Tokyo, Japan. The US Women's Cyber Team began virtual practice in August under the direction of a Head Coach and Assistant Head Coach. The program is an extension of the US Cyber Games and we are actively seeking opportunities to cross-train and scrimmage with other global women's teams. The US Cyber Games program aligns with the National Cybersecurity strategy focusing on workforce and international cooperation, as well as the NICE Strategic Plan objective to increase understanding of multiple learning pathways that lead to cybersecurity careers. The US Cyber Games program is supported by NICE, a program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US Department of Commerce. Members are: Lauren Delwiche (Yale University), Lily Gross (University of North Carolina at Charlotte), Eliza Hall (University of North Georgia), Carolina Hatanpaa (Rice University), Gillian Morris (Dakota State University), Sarah Ogden (Northern Kentucky University), Alexandria Petitt (California State University, Bakersfield), Renée Schmidt (Marymount University), Shiloh Smiles (George Mason University), Elan Smolar Eisenberg (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), and Gwen Vongkasemsiri (Dakota State University).

Last week, I had the privilege of traveling to Tokyo, Japan and competing with the US Women’s Cyber Team at the inaugural Kunoichi Cyber Game, an international women’s cybersecurity competition held at the CODE BLUE conference! Kudos to my incredibly talented teammates Ally Petitt, H. Carolina Hatanpaa, Eliza Hall, Lauren Delwiche, Lily Gross, and head captain Shiloh Smiles! It was an unforgettable experience and an honor to play with them and serve as co-captain of the team. I am so grateful to have been able to attend and compete with so many talented women from other countries. The US Women’s Cyber Team placed 2nd overall, and I am so proud of how our team competed! Go USA! ???????????? I also loved exploring the CODE BLUE conference talks and villages outside of the Kunoichi Cyber Games, especially the Car Hacking Village! Additionally, I joined the Biohacking Village CTF with a few of my teammates and took 3rd place, as well as 4th place in the NEC Corporation CTF! ?? Huge thank you’s to our coaches Ken Jenkins and Chelsie Cooper, as well as Bradley Wolfenden, Jessica Gulick and the US Cyber Games KATZCY team and sponsors for sending us there, and Kana Shinoda and the CODE BLUE conference for hosting! I hope to see even more competitions focused on international women’s cyber games in the future! #USWCT #womenincybersecurity #uscybergames #kunoichicybergames #codeblue_jp

Through StuCos (Student-Taught Courses), Carnegie Mellon University students have the opportunity to stretch their teaching muscles and lead a course of their own. In Spring 2025, Master of Science in Information Security (MSIS) student Rohan Viswanathan is sharing his expertise in Capture-the-Flag (CTF) competitions. His course, Introduction to CTFs, covers the fundamentals of CTFs and helps interested students dive in. What makes CTFs so valuable? Viswanathan has a few reasons: "CTFs make learning easier by breaking down complicated topics into bite-sized chunks to allow competitors to learn little by little. Since the topics covered in these competitions are relatively general, they can be applied to several roles within cybersecurity. "The best part is that CTFs are usually team-based, meaning collaboration is not only allowed but encouraged. This gives people a chance to work in a team setting and play off of everyone's strengths which is extremely valuable in industry." #CTF #HigherEd #INICMU

As many of you may have heard, Qualys recently discovered a series of five Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) vulnerabilities in the `needrestart` program, which runs with root privileges after library upgrades by package managers like `apt`. This past weekend, I decided to dive into CVE-2024-48990, using only the CVE description and referenced materials. I re-identified the vulnerability and developed an exploit for it (with a demo shown in the attached video). I’ve documented the entire process in my latest technical blog post: https://lnkd.in/gtbzrQDy. Feel free to reach out with any questions or thoughts – I’d love to discuss!

As I'm coming back into the US, i want to say thank you to the amazing organizers and my fellow competitors at Kunoichi Cyber Game this past week at Code Blue in Tokyo! I had an amazing time, met amazing people, and competed with some great ladies to get 2nd place! So proud my team Shiloh Smiles Gwendolyn Vongkasemsiri H. Carolina Hatanpaa Ally Petitt Lauren Delwiche and Eliza Hall! Thanks as well to our amazing coaches, Chelsie Cooper and Ken Jenkins, as well as Bradley Wolfenden and Jessica Gulick for helping make this experience so wonderful!