College of Business, Security & Intelligence

CIS Continues to Advance Aviation Cybersecurity with CTF Competitions For CIS students, opportunities for hands-on learning extend well beyond CBSI’s new Cyber Gym Makerspace. Since 2020, the department has offered student-led CTF competitions. CTF competitions are a common type of cybersecurity exercise that require participants to find “flags” in vulnerable or compromised systems. The goal is to develop participants’ cyber intelligence and security skills. Within the context of CIS, students frequently deliver CTFs to industry participants or dominate CTF student competitions at the regional and national level. 2023-2024 CTF highlights included: s Aug. 2023: CIS students built and delivered a CTF competition for over 30,000 industry connections at DEF CON 31. Few industry-vetted CTF competitions are student-led, and none are focused specifically on the cyber challenges in global aviation — except for Embry-Riddle’s competition. s Sep. 2023: CIS students traveled to Dublin for the Aviation Information Sharing and Analysis Center Summit. While in Dublin, students offered a CTF to student teams from over a dozen colleges and universities in Ireland. s Oct. 2023: CBSI partnered with Sandia National Laboratories to host Tracer FIRE 11 at the Prescott Campus. More than 35 teams competed in the CTF, which revolved around a new scenario with multiple cyberattacks on a fictional water utility infrastructure company. 80+ CIS students participated, and Embry-Riddle claimed the top three spots in the competition. The department was also home to the top individual scorer in the competition. s Oct. 2023: Both CIS and engineering students offered an aviation CTF to Collins Aerospace employees during an on-site visit. Students also had the opportunity to engage and learn from several experts and leaders at Collins Aerospace, as well as to visit their state-of-the-art labs, testing rigs and other facilities. s Feb. 2024: The department offered an aviation-focused CTF competition at the Aviation Cyber Initiative Cyber Rodeo. The two-day event was hosted at Embry-Riddle’s Center for Aerospace Resilient Systems on the Daytona Beach Campus and included student recruitment opportunities, demonstrations, poster sessions and technical briefings. s Feb. 2024: Three CIS teams of 10 students competed in the NCAE Cyber Games regionals. Of those three teams, one was invited to nationals and won the top spot in April 2024! The NCAE Cyber Games are specifically designed for students who have never participated in a cyber competition or hackathon before. s April 2024: CIS welcomed to the Prescott Campus over 100 professionals from industry, academia and government, and students from 45+ organizations, for its inaugural ERAU-NASA-NSF aviation cybersecurity workshop. The agenda included more than a dozen panel sessions with community leaders and experts, student research poster presentations and a CTF with cash prizes for student attendees from 24+ universities and industry mentors.

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