ACROSS THE COUNTRY, CANADIAN STUDENTS COMPETED IN THE CYBERPATRIOT, A GLOBAL YOUTH CYBERSECURITY COMPETITION. OUT OF OVER 133 CANADIAN TEAMS, THE TOP 11 WERE SELECTED TO COMPETE HEAD-TO-HEAD IN THE CYBERTITAN NATIONAL FINALS. NOW IN ITS 4TH YEAR, CYBERTITAN HAS GROWN INTO ONE OF THE LARGEST NATIONAL YOUTH CYBER DEFENCE COMPETITIONS. SO WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO BE A CYBERTITAN? THROUGH THE “MEET THE CYBERTITANS” BLOG SERIES, HEAR FROM THE TEAMS THAT WILL BE COMPETING ON MAY 17TH IN THE SECOND VIRTUAL CYBERTITAN COMPETITION.
Team Teapot- William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, North York, ON
Hello! We are Teapot, a team of students from William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute in North York, Ontario. This is our second year participating in CyberTitan and CyberPatriot. Despite its virtual format due to the pandemic, last year’s CyberTitan competition was still a memorable experience for all of us. We learned so many valuable lessons when it came to cybersecurity and its impact on the world. Our highlights this year include placing in the top 30 teams in the open division in all three CyberPatriot rounds as well as a last-minute clutch on the Linux image during the second round. Perhaps you might have heard of us as 404: team_not_found from last year’s CyberTitan.
Matthew
Hi, my name is Matthew. This year, I decided to try out Cisco. I joined CyberTitan last year because I wanted to try out computers from a new perspective. I have had some previous experiences with competitive programming and web development; however, cybersecurity is really nothing like conventional programming. CyberTitan allows one to compete with a team on a subject that is both important and that will be highly demanded in the future. In an era where technology is more common than ever, cybersecurity becomes a more concerning issue. CyberTitan has truly taught me the significance of cybersecurity. Moreover, it has taught me strong communication and teamwork skills. Finally, my favourite snack is water.
Steven
Hey, I’m Steven, the main Linux image runner and script writer. Last year, I joined CyberTitan because I had always been interested in cybersecurity but never had any great real-world experiences. CyberTitan gave me the perfect combination of a competitive environment and high-pressure situation to test my skills. This year, I hope to continue building on my cybersecurity knowledge and valuing its importance in this technological age. Just as I said last year, I’ve always thought that cybersecurity comes second for many people, which leads to the severe cybersecurity blunders we see today. From that perspective, CyberTitan hasn’t changed my view on the importance of cybersecurity in a significant manner; however, it’s certainly provided me with some fond memories like getting those last few points out of our Linux images and cementing our spot in the finals.
Celeste
I’m Celeste, one of the Windows image specialists and the script writer. In my younger years, I’ve been intrigued by the available (or unavailable) security and privacy options in my installed software and operating system. CyberTitan stood out as a unique environment to learn about the defensive side of cybersecurity. Upon joining, it has introduced to me not only a new realm of technical system and security knowledge but also the sheer number of security holes that something could have. My six-word life story would be: a long time may prove short-lived.
Tracy
Hi! My name is Tracy, and I mainly work on Windows during the competitions. I first joined CyberTitan a year ago to learn more about computers and software. Since then, I’ve deepened my understanding of cybersecurity, more specifically the process of hardening Windows machines. This experience has been invaluable in opening my eyes to the whole other world that is computer security, including the potentially devastating consequences that can occur if systems are not hardened properly. The competition has really developed my interest in computers overall, and I am very excited to be able to participate again this year. If I were to say my story in six words, it would be: too complex for only six words.
Quentin
Hello! I’m Quentin. I’m one of the Linux image specialists and script writers on the team. I joined CyberTitan because I was getting into Linux and CTFs [capture the flag competitions] last year and wanted to learn more in the field of cybersecurity. CyberTitan has taught me about all the different services that we run on our computers and how a misconfiguration or vulnerability in one of them can compromise an entire system. One of my best memories from CyberTitan was from the finals last year because the remote SSH environment was very different from everything else we had done in competition. Our completion of the round 1 VMs this year in under two hours using the scripts our team developed was also very memorable.
Nathan
Hey, I’m Nathan, and I’m responsible for the Cisco portion of CyberPatriot. I joined the team last year because I’m interested in cybersecurity; after all, everyone’s talking about “staying safe” online, but how do you protect yourself from an array of fancy flashing lights, and how do cybercriminals exploit them? This year, I wanted to practice and expand on my skills. Participating in CyberPatriot has been an informative experience both years. I learned a lot about the different ways an intruder can get into an unsuspecting network and measures to prevent these breaches from happening, which has strengthened my conviction that cybersecurity is as important of a section of any network as whatever other function the network may have. My favourite moments during the competition are when I finally figured out how to properly configure something; it’s a very rewarding experience seeing the point counter increase.
Mandy Zheng [Coach]
“I am impressed by the team’s talent and passion for CyberTitan and am proud to be their coach.”
