http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/04/12/midshipmen_compete_in_nsa_security_drill/ April 12, 2006 ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Midshipmen at the Naval Academy took part in a simulated battle Tuesday, defending their computer systems against an attack by hackers from the National Security Agency in Fort Meade. The Mids were guarding their network against intrusions by NSA experts, who were sniffing around on servers, sneaking into systems and adding fake users, complete with passwords, that could allow unauthorized access. The intruders even induced the dreaded blue screen of death on a Navy machine. This combat was part of the sixth annual Cyber Defense Exercise, in which all the nation's service academies compete to see who can best defend an information network from the NSA team. Navy won last year's event. This year's competitors, besides Navy, are the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y., the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., and the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology in Ohio. "It's a really practical application of what we learn in class," said Alison Teoh, 20, a junior and computer science major who is running the administrative side of the competition for Navy. "It's definitely dramatic as well, staying up four days straight and being slammed with attacks all the time by NSA." About a dozen Mids worked in a room with more than 20 computers Tuesday, and some said they planned to work through the night during the competition, sleeping only four or five hours a day during the four-day event, The (Baltimore) Sun. The Midshipmen were optimistic about the competition, pointing out that the servers of other military academies had been disabled longer than theirs. Participants will be graded on how they respond to the events, how effectively they defend and recover from the efforts of the NSA hackers' efforts to disable their systems. Jonathan Kindel, 22, a senior majoring in information technology and national security affairs, said his major combined technical study with the increasing importance of defense systems. "I know enough now to manage skills as a program manager, but there's also a political science twist to all of it," he said. "You get to learn the impact of this stuff on an international playground." _________________________________ LayerOne 2006 : Pasadena Hilton : Pasadena, CA Infomation Security and Technology Conference http://layerone.info
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