It was great to meet everyone who came to the Involvement Fest today!

If you just meet us today at Involvement Fest, take a moment to read over our Fall Semester Plans: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbccd/posts/143440

Furthermore, we have a competition opportunity coming up this weekend! Check out the following myUMBC Post: https://my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/umbccd/posts/143556

As a reminder, our meetings will occur every Monday Night from 7:15 PM to 8:15 PM in ILSB 118 and via Webex: https://umbc.webex.com/meet/CyberDawgs. Everyone is welcome, regardless of whether you're well-versed in cybersecurity or new to the field. 

Our first meeting will be Monday, September 9th; we can’t wait to see you all there!

If you can’t attend on Monday Nights, we will release meeting recordings (when possible) and slides. These materials will become available no later than Tuesday Afternoon. 

If you're interested in more technical and in-depth topics, CyberDawgs Club Members are invited to attend and listen in on CMSC 491/691 Active Cyber Defense lectures. The class meets once a week virtually on Wednesdays from 7:10 - 9:00 PM. The course’s Webex link, meeting recordings, and slides can be found on the CMSC 491 website:  https://courses.cs.umbc.edu/undergraduate/CMSC491activeCyber/indexFall24.html 

Please share any suggestions, ideas, or feedback for the club board using the form below. You can be as honest as you want, this form is anonymous. https://forms.gle/p8WyY2MmqQZYZYQo8 

Finally, don’t hesitate to ask questions and join the Club Discord https://discord.gg/hUVkGvvY2y. And as always, Don't Do Crime.

William Brooks

I wanted to let you all know about a competition opportunity this weekend. The qualifier round of the CSAW CTF (https://www.csaw.io/ctf) will be hosted virtually from 6 September 2024, 12:00 ET, to 8 September 2024, 12:00 ET. 

The best part of the qualifier round is that schools can compete with unlimited members!

If you’re interested in competing with UMBC's CSAW CTF Team, fill out the following form by Thursday Night. https://forms.gle/PoyjKjtz5zqxpxAcA

Even if you can’t compete the whole weekend, this is a great opportunity to learn, try new things, and test your skills. 

NOTE: You must be a current undergraduate or graduate student to participate. 

Also, please do NOT sign up on CSAW's website; a join link unique to our team will be sent out on Friday Morning in one of our Discord Channels (Join Here: https://discord.gg/hUVkGvvY2y) However, that link will only be available to those who fill out the Google Form beforehand. 

If you’re not exactly sure what I am talking about, I recommend reading the following article:

What is a CTF?
https://ctfd.io/whats-a-ctf/

Kind Regards, 

William Brooks

We have a lot planned for this semester and hope you all are excited to get started as we are!

Our meetings will occur every Monday Night from 7:15 PM to 8:15 PM (new time) in ILSB 118 and via Webex: https://umbc.webex.com/meet/CyberDawgs. Everyone is welcome, regardless of whether you're well-versed in cybersecurity or new to the field.

Sept 9th | First Meeting: Club Welcome, Board Intros, Historical Presentation, Semester Plans, and a Very ‘Brief’ Intro to “Cyber”

Sept 16th | Intro to VM\CTFs\Trainings

Sept 23rd | Cyber Team and Tryout Info

Sept 30th | Cyber Career Panel

Oct 7th | Resume Building Night

Oct 14th | How to Win CDE

Oct 21st | How to Lose CDE [CDE Debrief]

Oct 28th | Web Attacks\Vulnerabilities

Nov 4th | Protocol Analysis

Nov 11th | Cyber Movie Night (Movie: The Imitation Game)

Nov 18th | Reverse Engineering

Nov 25th | FireTalks (Speakers: Club Members) [more info to come out soon]

Dec 2nd | Election for Anticipated Vice President Vacancy

Dec 9th | End-of-Semester Celebration

A new CTF challenge will be released at the end of each meeting in the Club Discord. They will be fun, beginner-friendly, and designed to help you build your skills. At the start of each meeting, we will walk through the previous week's challenge. There will be tech prizes for the top 3 solvers.

Our Cyber Defense Exercise (CDE) will be on Saturday, October 19. CDE is a Red/Blue competition open to all UMBC students. It is a great way to experience a competitive environment while learning about cybersecurity. Registration information will be out soon.

We will hold a movie night during our November 11th Club Meeting as a break from the technical jargon. We offer free pizza, popcorn, and drinks. This will be a great chance to hang out with fellow club members and relax from the stress of school. The movie will be The Imitation Game.

At the final club meeting on December 9th, all students are invited to take a break before exams. We provide free pizza, drinks, candy, music, and games. We will also announce winners of our CTFs and hand out prizes!

Our Discord and myUMBC will be where we post updates about meetings and events. Links to these pages can be found at: https://linktr.ee/cyberdawgs. There are also links to view our club’s Google Calendar and Website [in-depth information about the club and team].

Finally, don’t hesitate to ask questions and introduce yourself in ⁠the member-introductions channel in the Discord. And as always, Don't Do Crime.

William Brooks

Included in this email is a link to a slideshow with the Solutions to Every CyberPaws CTF Challenge this academic year (Fall '23 and Spring '24):

Also, below is a link to a zip file containing all the challenge files so you can easily walk through the challenges again on your own system:

If you have any questions about the solutions or you're still stuck send me a DM (@truegritter on Discord). Best of luck and thank you all for participating in the CyberPaws CTF this year!

William Brooks

I want to share information about a victory the Competition Team had a few weeks ago. 

On April 29th, the UMBC Collegiate Cyber Competition CyberDawgs  showcased their prowess at the U.S. Army's Aberdeen Proving Ground during the Association of Old Crows's CEMA Capture the Flag event. The teams, CyberDawgs Black (comprising Kevin Chen, Nicholas Marthinuss, William Brooks, Sophia Hamer) and CyberDawgs Gold (featuring Kyle Smith, Cameron Kozlay, Ryan Castro), represented UMBC with distinction. Competing against a diverse set of competitors including other university teams, industry professionals, and military CPTs, UMBC not only secured first and second place but dominated the competition. UMBC Black secured a commanding lead with 9464 points, while UMBC Gold followed with 4642 points. The third-place finisher, CACI International Inc – The CACI Kernels, finished with 4388 points.

Congrats to All!

Kind Regards, 
William Brooks

(This event is sponsored by the International Cybersecurity Center of Excellence, which UMBC is a founding member.)

The deadline is fast approaching for the 2024 global Country-to-Country (C2C) CTF, which will be hosted by Australia's Edith Cowan University as a fully on-line, virtual event. 

Sorry for the late notification. But I just wanted to remind everyone that the End of Semester Celebration is still on for tonight from 7:10 to 9:00PM. However, we will be in ENG 231 for tonight, since we can't eat in ITE 231. We will have free Pizza and Drinks! As well as a chance to hang out and play games.

Unfortunately, the prizes did not come in time for tonight, but we will still be announcing the winners of the CyberPaws CTF and the Raffle. We will communicate with the winners to get them to you. 

We also will be celebrating graduating members of the Cyber Competition Team and Club by sending them off with graduation cords. 

There will be no Webex for tonight, so if you can make in person, try to make it out!

William Brooks

The next CyberPaws CTF challenge has been released! Please submit your flag to the "Prize Pup Bot" on our Discord via DMs, using the `!submit` command! You have until our next meeting to submit. The flag will always be in the following format: Paws{ex4mpl3_fl4g}.

As a reminder, this week's submissions for the CyberPaws CTF challenge will close at the start of tonight's meeting. Remember to submit your flag! Also, if you would like a hint, you can DM a board member to receive one. 

Again, don't hesitate to reach out to me on Discord (@truegritter), if you have any questions. And as always, Don't Do Crime.

William Brooks