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SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Last weekend in San Antonio, Brigham Young University’s “Autolock” team competed at the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition and took second place in a tightly contested match.
Universities from across the country come to NCCDC with teams of eight students to fight hackers and defend their networks as a team.
Half of BYU’s team members were female and it was led by team captain Laura Wilkinson, who was awarded the Navy Chief’s coin for her leadership. In the history of NCCDC, there has never been a gender-balanced team at regionals or nationals.
In all seriousness, this is how @BYU and @BYUCSRL will be remembered for eternity from #nccdchttps://t.co/PcKJhxpWyb
— Laura Wilkinson (@Kikastrophe) April 26, 2016
The judges and organizers said they were impressed by the team spirit of Autolock, which came out through high-spirited songs and dancing.
It was a tight contest for first place, which went to the three-time consecutive champions from the University of Central Florida.
“We learned a lot, this year being our first national," said Dale Rowe, an assistant professor at BYU who serves as the team's coach. "Some things we didn’t know came to light in terms of how they would like the teams to respond to attacks and threats. We will learn from this and are excited for the future.”
Autolock plans on returning to NCCDC regionals to try again for the championship title in 2017.
For more information about the BYU cybersecurity program online.
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