A Challenge in Codebreaking
By Chris Eboch
The CyberForce competition at Idaho National Laboratory in 2019. The team members are beginning in the left foreground to the back: Celia Pacheco, Brendan Wilson, Jessica Rooney, then from right back to the foreground: Armando Juarez, Kevin Helfert, and Adam Merrill. Photo by Lorie Liebrock, PhD, Director of Cybersecurity Centers Professor of Computer Science and Engineering.
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omputer users know security helps prevent hackers from stealing information and malware (harmful software) from destroying files. Protecting against digital attacks is so important that the National Security Agency (NSA) sponsors the Codebreaker Challenge to help train university students in Cybersecurity. Many Computer Science (CS) students at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro have joined—and shone—in recent years. Students “help save the government” from a fictional attack on computer systems. Completing every step of the challenge requires tactics such as reverse engineering and blockchain exploit development. Developing these skills could help students get government or industry jobs in network security, which is growing in demand. “Many employers look for these activities to show that students can accomplish tasks needed to defend real networks and systems,” says faculty advisor Lorie Liebrock, Director of Cybersecurity Centers and Professor of Computer Science & Engineering. Tech students Jessica Rooney and Owen Parkins showed the challenge to the Computer Science classes during the fall 2018 semester. Many Tech students joined, and 59 completed the first task. As tasks got harder, students dropped out. Owen, Adam Merrill, and Luke Rindels were among only 20 students nationwide who completed all eight tasks. “The NSA puts this challenge on as a recruiting effort, so they design the challenge to help students get the skills needed for jobs at the NSA and other agencies,” notes
22 October 2020 • enchantment.coop
Luke, now a CS graduate. “As a Scholarship for Service student, I have a service requirement with the federal government after graduation. Completing this challenge helped me develop skills and prove that I am motivated, capable of problem-solving, and have the necessary technical skills.” When students complete stages of the challenge, the school gets points. The more difficult challenges earn more points. Tech finished fourth for the 2019 challenge. The top three schools each had at least 10 times the student enrollment of New Mexico Tech. CS graduate Owen Parkins participated for four years. “The first competition I needed help on almost every task. The second competition I could do the basics but then didn’t have the knowledge nor the will to continue.” He finished all challenges his third and fourth times. “Doing the competition each year lets me accurately judge my progress with my education, inside and outside school. I will always have more to learn, but I know I can learn what I need to learn.” Taking the challenge isn’t a class requirement—it’s entirely the student’s choice. Celia Maria Pacheco, a CS graduate student, says, “It was a great opportunity to learn more skills outside of the classroom as well as apply what I have already learned.” Clearly, the students must be skilled and motivated, but the competition isn’t all hard work. CS Senior Shad Gudmunson calls it, “a great opportunity to hang out with friends to work together, to learn and to have fun while doing it.” That fun is great training for future jobs. “While the
