CY
Connor Young
  • Computer Science/Psychology
  • Class of 2016
  • Springdale, Ark.

Connor Young participates in cyber defense competition

2017 Apr 17

Connor Young of Springdale, Ark., was a member of a cyber security team from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock that was one of the top finishers in the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Southwest regional March 17-19 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Coached by Yanyan Li, an integrated computing doctoral student, the team of Connor Young, Aaron Mays, Hector Fernandez, Jeffrey Wooldridge, Josh Carlat, Malik El-Amin, Shijun Zhong, and Zachary Long took fourth place in the competition.

During the competition, each team served as the information technology department for Planet Express Trucking, Inc., a fictional company that provides freight services. The teams tasks included setting up an email server, running the company website, and developing social media policies as well as fulfilling assigned business tasks, such as adding a server to the company's domain and writing policies about the use of external data storage devices on company property.

Competitors also had to defend their work against the Red Team, whose members consist of professional penetration testers charged with sabotaging their work. Penetration testers are hackers hired by companies to find holes in their cybersecurity systems.

The UA Little Rock team was one of eight to advance to the regional event after competing against 20 teams from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and New Mexico during a virtual qualifying round on Feb. 18.