Robert Watkins Competes in Midwest Regional Cyber Defense Event

2018 Feb 20

In an impressive debut, Robert Watkins and McKendree University's new 117th Regiment Cyber Defense Team finished among the top 5 teams at the Midwest Regional Cyber Defense Competition, held at Moraine Valley Community College in Chicago, Feb. 17-18. Eleven teams competed, including the University of Illinois, Illinois State and SIU-C.

In a collegiate cyber defense competition, each student group manages and protects a mock commercial network against a red team of "hackers" who try to take it down. Teams are judged on their ability to detect and respond to outside threats as they maintain availability of their network's web and mail servers, and balance security needs against business needs.

Established last fall, the McKendree cyber defense team is named after the 117th Regiment, drawing from the university's Civil War heritage.

The team will participate next at the Department of Energy Cyber Defense Competition at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, April 6-7.