Frequently Asked Questions
If you have a question about Western Regional CCDC, please use the list of Frequently Asked Questions below to find an answer. If you are not able to find the answer to your question here, visit our Contact Us page and send us an e-mail.
General Questions
Q: What is the purpose of the competition?
A: The competition is designed to test each student team's ability to secure a networked computer system while maintaining standard business functionality.
Q: What will the team receive for winning the competition?
A: The winning team of the Western Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition will be able to move on to the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition which is held in April.
Q: Where is the competition held at?
A: All of the day's events for the 2008 competition will be held at Cal Poly Pomona in Building 98C.
Q: How long is this competition and what is the date for Western Regional CCDC?
A: The competition is a 3 days event starting from Friday, March 28, 2008 and last till Sunday, March 30, 2008. We are still in the progress of scheduling the event, but we will have the schedule available on our website soon.
Q: How much does it cost to enter the competition?
A: Prices have not been determined at this point and will depend on available sponsorships and funding. It is anticipated that registration fees could be $150 per team.
Competition FAQ
Q: What are the Red Team and White Team?
A: The red team is comprised of informational security professionals from commercial, military, or governmental organizations who have volunteered their time and skills to assist in the assessment of a team's ability to defend their network and services. The red team is responsible for providing a credible, realistic threat to the network and services where they will probe, scan, and attempt to penetrate or disrupt each team's daily operations throughout the competition. The white team is responsible for monitoring the network, implementing scenario events, and refereeing the competition among the blue teams.
Q: How is the competition score?
A: Scoring will be based on keeping required services up, controlling/preventing unauthorized access, and completing business taskings that will be provided throughout the competition. However, any team action that interrupts the scoring system is exclusively the fault of the team and will result in a lower score.
Q: Can teams be disqualified?
A: Any team that tampers with or interferes with the scoring or operations of another team's systems will be disqualified. Other actions that may result in disqualification include viewing inappropriate or unauthorized content on the Internet or obtaining outside assistance from non-team members.
Q: When will the scores be release to the student teams?
A: The scores will be not shared until the end of the competition. There will be no running totals provided during the competition.
Competitor FAQ
Q: Who handles all the protests and official inquires for the team?
A: Each student team will designate an official Team Leader who will handle all disputes and official inquiries for their team during the competition.
Q: What is the responsiblity of the team leader?
A: Team leaders are encouraged to work with the contest staff to resolve any disputes or questions regarding rules of the competition or scoring methods before the competition begins.
Q: When will the details about the network configuration be given to the team?
A: Details about the network configuration will be given to each team prior to the competition.
Q: Will teams be able to monitor their score on the scoring engine?
A: Each team will be provided with a portal for service status checks that they may watch and regularly refresh.
Technical Concern
Q: Will we be allowed to change any software (e.g., web server) from the stated one?
A: Yes, however you would have to check with us to ensure it is approved software (free / open source / os included). Remember that the scoring engine will need to be able to score it.
Q: Can we bring our own system or networking device?
A: No. Teams may not bring any computer, laptop, external drive, networking device, tablet, PDA, etc… into the competition area. Teams may bring personal MP3 players provided they are not connected to competition systems at any time. Connecting any unauthorized device to the competition network will result in a disqualification of that team.
Q: Will the red team be provided network / system information by the operations team?
A: No – the red team will not be provided any network or system information before the competition begins. They will have to examine the systems as an outside attacker with no internal information. Once the red team arrives on site they will be given a set of rules and guidelines, their IP ranges, a list of target subnets, and that's about it.
Q: Will the red team be attacking any of the global resources?
A: No – the red team will not be attacking any of the global resources. They will only be examining team systems.
Q: What specific operating systems and applications are installed on the machines?
A: Below is a list of applications and operating systems that might appear in the competition networks:
Operating Systems
- Windows 2003
- Windows 2000 Server
- Windows XP Professional
- Windows Vista
- Various Linux Distributions
Applications
- Microsoft Office
- IIS
- MySQL
- Various e-mail server (e.g. Sendmail, Exchange, qmail...)
- Active Directory
- BIND / MS-DNS
- OpenSSL
- SSH
- Apache
Q: Will the competition systems be connected to the Internet?
A: Yes and No – the actual team networks will not be directly connected to the Internet. Each team will be able to route out of the central network where they can download software, patches, Google, etc. WARNING All Internet traffic is monitored for rule violations and inappropriate content.
Q: Will each computer have their own monitor or are they connected to a KVM switch?
A: Some computers will have their own monitor but most will be connected to KVM switch.
Q: What happens if hardware fails during the competition?
A: That really depends on the failure. We will have some spares, but they are limited. Worst case scenario if one team loses a particular system everyone will lose that same system and we will adjust scoring to compensate.