All-woman UCF cyber club makes nationals
6-team final for cybersecurity held in Las Vegas
The University of Central Florida will be the only school at a cybersecurity competition with an all-woman squad after the group made it through an initial qualifying round and into a six-team final in Las Vegas.
The team, which is made up of members of the school’s highly decorated Hack@UCF club, was scheduled to compete in the Wicked6 Cyber Games on Thursday. Results were not immediately available.
The fundraising competition puts the teams through simulated scenarios that require them to defend security networks from attacks.
The effort to attract more women into technology-related fields has been an ongoing one for the tech industry. Of Hack@UCF’s 350 members, about 60-65 are women.
They include the members of the team in Las Vegas: computer science majors Sara Aladham, Lauryn Landkrohn and Sydney Munro, along with information technology major Jensly Francisco. Computer science major Natalie Larkin is the alternate in the Vegas competition.
“We all get to experience something new and leverage this learning opportunity,” Munro said in a release. “I’m looking forward to being in Las Vegas with thousands of security people - they’re some of the most passionate, interesting people I have met.”
Hack@UCF is the collegiate cyber defense club at University of Central Florida, which regularly qualifies for national competitions and last year won the Department fo Energy’s national championship in cyber defense.
They will compete with California State University,
Northridge; East Coast Polytechnic Institute; University of Colorado, Boulder; University of Nevada in Reno; and University of North Carolina in Wilmington.
“We have reached a point where cyber competitions can move beyond traditional exercises to being on par with esports,” said Jessica Gulick, vice president of the Women’s Society of Cyberjutsu, which is hosting the event, in a release. “It’s time for the field of cybersecurity to recognize not only famous or infamous hackers, but the best cyber athletes at all levels.”