{"id":198519,"date":"2026-03-23T14:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T18:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/23\/purdue-northwest-hosts-college-cybersecurity-competition\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T19:00:16","slug":"purdue-northwest-hosts-college-cybersecurity-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/23\/purdue-northwest-hosts-college-cybersecurity-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Purdue Northwest Hosts College Cybersecurity Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Purdue Northwest Hosts College Cybersecurity Competition<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.govtech.com\/education\/higher-ed\/purdue-northwest-hosts-college-cybersecurity-competition<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-03-23 14:46:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.govtech.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

(TNS) \u2014 Cyber attacks just a few years ago made national headlines when hackers poked holes through the nation\u2019s pipelines, ferry boats, meat packing and even cream cheese supply systems. In response, leaders in the cybersecurity space are taking steps to give computer science students what they need to know if they should fall victim to a hacker.The Purdue University Northwest Hammond campus hosted the Midwest Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition on Friday and Saturday. Twelve colleges sent teams from Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio to participate in six-hour and nine-hour cybersecurity defense marathons protecting mock-up businesses from \u201chacker” attacks.Armed with Fritos, chips, energy drinks and water, the students began the process of defending their pretend clients from “successful attacks\u201d by the hacking team, comprised of volunteers and alumni of the competition.The hacking team uses compromised information from a competing team\u2019s server to take it down, or the hacker can use a systems\u2019 vulnerabilities to take it down, explained Indiana Tech\u2019s Captain Timothy Bukowski, a senior and third-year participant of the Midwest Regional competition.A team can earn points by correctly identifying what a hacker did to take down a server, or at least get partial points for getting close to it, Bukowski said.Computer Information Technology and Graphics Department Chair Keyuan Jiang said it was PNW\u2019s second time hosting the Midwest competition, in partnership with Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Illinois. The winner of the competition goes to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition for a longer and more intense competition.Second place in this weekend\u2019s competition will get a shot at redemption, to battle it out with second-place finishers from other regional competitions for a Wild Card pick. The national competition takes place in California.The type of training and ramifications the students prepare for go deeper than employees writing down simple passwords on notepads.\u201cWe had a great quote by one of the advisors years ago,\u201d said Director of Competition Operations David Durkee. \u201cHe said, \u2018The CCDC gives students five years of experience in eight hours.\u2019 It’s exaggerated to make a point, but it’s got a lot of truth there.\u201c(The students) are not working so much with individual users, but they’re working with the core networks and core facilities of various corporations and government agencies to assure that all of their operations and the services that they run are kept secure and they don’t get broken into.”The strength of a company\u2019s cybersecurity and its vulnerabilities have reached new levels of attention from the federal government, hackers and Hollywood. In the popular HBO Max drama series “The Pitt,” currently streaming, a main focal point of its second season is the hospital the television program is set in had to shut off its internet access and most computers after hackers froze operations and neighboring hospitals and demanded high ransoms from them.\u201cRansomware is very significant,\u201d Durkee said, \u201cAnd of course, medical records are a very key item. We have strict laws now that when it comes to HIPAA \u2026 personal information on medical records \u2026 so you don’t want threat actors getting a hold of these records and threatening to expose those in any way.\u201d\u00a9 2026 The Times (Munster, Ind.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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