UNG finishes sixth in NSA cyber event

The University of North Georgia (UNG) placed sixth out of 445 universities and colleges nationally with 46,303 total points in the 2022 National Security (NSA) Codebreaker Challenge that wrapped up Dec. 9. UNG was also the highest-finishing senior military college in the competition.

With Georgia Tech in first place, Oregon State University and the University of California Santa Cruz rounded out the top three spots.

"This year's Codebreaker Challenge was the toughest yet, and we're proud to be one of the top teams in the country for the fifth year in a row thanks to the hard work our students put into the three-month competition," Dr. Bryson Payne, coordinator of student cyber programs and professor of computer science and information systems, said.

The students were tasked with infiltrating and shutting down a ransomware-for-hire site, as well as decrypting and restoring a company's files after an attack. The challenge was based on real-life work at the NSA, Payne said.

This is the sixth consecutive top-six finish in the event for UNG and the eighth time a UNG team has competed.

It's a recruiting tool for NSA. If a student has the dedication, determination, persistence, and the knowledge to complete these advanced reverse engineering tasks, then they've got the skill set that the NSA is looking for

Dr. Bryson Payne

coordinator of student cyber programs and professor of computer science and information systems

Chavez encourages other females, including younger girls, not to be intimidated by cybersecurity.

"I know it can be scary, but it's really rewarding," she said. "Everybody's learning at the same time and everybody learns differently."

For returning competitor Bella Vann, a senior from Gainesville, Georgia, pursuing a degree in computer science, the experience was rewarding.

Vann said it took hard work and determination to complete the tasks.

"It's hard. I feel like I'm learning things doing the tasks," Vann said. "It feels really good when you get something right."

This year's event involved nine tasks.

"It's designed to be hard enough that the NSA can expect only about 1% of students to complete all nine tasks, and they've done a good job this year," Payne said. "It's a recruiting tool for NSA. If a student has the dedication, determination, persistence, and the knowledge to complete these advanced reverse engineering tasks, then they've got the skill set that the NSA is looking for."

The Codebreaker Challenge enables participants to see several different components in cybersecurity and different career paths like forensics, ethical hacking, reverse engineering, security operations, and network security.

"Students can see that it's not just one-size-fits-all in cyber security," Payne said. "If they want to develop software, they can. If they want to investigate cyberattacks and cybercrimes, they can do that, too. All of those components are a part of this challenge and it's one of the reasons UNG works so hard to make sure our students can compete for NSA internships and scholarships."