CCDC, which stands for the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, is a defense-based competition that is based on providing and sustaining the security of an enterprise network infrastructure together with a well maintained business information system. The objectives of the competition are to provide students a platform to implement the content they have learned in their courses, provide colleges a means to reevaluate their course contents, encourage teamwork, ethical behavior and good communication skills among students and offer a platform to meeting and cooperation among different higher education institutions.

This year CCDC was hosted by Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, TX from February 29 to March 2, 2008. The CSE Security Team went to the CCDC competition with eight students, one student sponsor and one faculty sponsor. UNT participated in the competition with the following team: Undergraduate students were Kevin Myung-Hoon Jung, Arthur Williams, Blake Eakin, Mitch Clay, Angel Fox and Paul Sroufe; Graduate students were Prudhvi Krishna and Tze-I Yang; student sponsor was Chris Gathright and faculty sponsor was Ebru Celikel.

Texas A&M College Station received first place and the University of New Orleans was the runner-up in the contest.

The eight participant teams competed under a scenario business plan (Valvex) and protected their network systems against attacks organized by Red Team members. The attacks resembled real world scenarios, such as a hurricane that struck Corpus Christi and affected network systems. The UNT team enjoyed being in the competition and learned a lot from this experience.

The CSE Security Team would like to thank Dr. Ram Dantu and Dr. Krishna Kavi for their support of this event. Dr. Ram Dantu participated in preparations for the competition and provided financial support. The UNT Computer Science Department also contributed to the financial support for the event