ANN ARBOR, Mich. — MCRCon Cybersecurity Conference, hosted by Merit Network, is challenging IT pros and computer enthusiasts to a Capture the Flag (CTF) competition on May 20, 2014. The competition will test the speed and skill of competitors within the Michigan Cyber Range’s virtual environment. Participants will search for clues and collect flags to win top honors, and prizes will be awarded to first, second, and third place winners.
The Capture the Flag challenges will include: forensics and incident response, data manipulation, software vulnerabilities, and social engineering. For users who have competed in a capture the flag exercise before, several new challenges in data manipulation, forensics discovery and software vulnerability detection have been added. The CTF real-time scoring system will track the flags and display a leader board of scores, so participants can gauge their progress through the event.
“We are continually updating our CTF exercise to provide new challenges for our users,” said William “Joe” Adams, vice president of research and cyber security at Merit Network. “The addition of forensics and incident response is a new avenue for us and we think that it will provide another exciting aspect to the exercise.”
Participants can use their own laptop or one of the limited number of computers provided. Those who wish to use their laptop will need to download and install VMWare Horizon prior to participating in the CTF competition.
In addition to the Capture the Flag challenge, MCRCon on May 20th will feature three prominent speakers from industry to discuss the Internet of Things and other cybersecurity issues:
Greg Conti, Director, U.S. Army Cyber Research Center and Associate Professor of Computer Science, United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
Chris Roberts, Founder, CISO and CTO, One World Labs.
J Wolfgang Goerlich, Vice President of Consulting Services, VioPoint Inc.
MCRCon will be held from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 20, at the Ann Arbor Marriott Ypsilanti at Eagle Crest, which is located at 1275 S Huron Street in Ypsilanti. The CTF competition will run from noon to 7 p.m.
For more details about MCRCon, please visit: www.merit.edu/mcrcon/
About Michigan Cyber Range
The Michigan Cyber Range was developed in partnership with the State of Michigan to provide organizations with an unclassified, secure cybersecurity environment that can be used for training exercises, security applications, software testing, and educational purposes. It is hosted and facilitated by Merit Network and is sponsored by DTE Energy. The Range prepares cybersecurity professionals to detect, prevent and mitigate cyberattacks in a real-world setting, providing simulations that test the detection and reaction skills of participants in a variety of situations. The Michigan Cyber Range also offers certification courses for a number of cybersecurity disciplines, with instruction available on-site and live online. A full training schedule may be found at the Merit Michigan Cyber Range web site: www.merit.edu/cyberrange/
About Merit Network
Merit Network Inc., is a nonprofit corporation owned and governed by Michigan’s public universities. Merit owns and operates America’s longest-running regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan’s public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained on the forefront of research and education networking expertise and services. Merit provides high-performance networking and IT solutions to Michigan’s public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations.
For more information: www.merit.edu
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