Brigham Young University wins 2023 Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

Brigham Young University is the champion of the 2023 Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, hosted at the Regis Denver Tech Center Campus. The regional championship featured eight local collegiate cyber teams competing on March 3 and 4. This was the 13th consecutive year that Regis has hosted this competition.

This iconic event is made possible by the generous support of our sponsors; Raytheon Technologies, ISACA, The Denver Chapter, BATELLE, FORTRA, Palo Alto Networks, and the Cisco Networking Academy.

The RMCCDC tournament series is a tiered competition that exercises collegiate competitors’ business skills and technical cyber capabilities. The competition focuses on the operational aspects of managing and protecting an existing “commercial” network infrastructure in a fictious company, with teams facing off against each other while being under attack by an adversary, known as the “red team.”

“Investing in the next generation of cybersecurity professionals is vital to defending our systems, networks and livelihood against emerging threats,” said Christopher Ellis, senior principal cyber engineer for Raytheon Technologies’ Cyber Offense & Defense Experts, or CODEX, division. “Programs like CCDC provide cybersecurity experience and connect students to mentors in the industry. These students are future researchers and engineers, and the creativity and passion they’ve shown throughout the competition will serve them well in their future careers.”

As the regional champions, BYU will advance to compete at the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition on April 28-30, in Dallas, Texas for the chance to win the coveted Alamo Cup.

“It is an honor to be a part in preparing young men and women for their cybersecurity careers. They will shortly be protecting our businesses, educational institutions, our municipal, county, and state governments, our federal government, and our great nation against cyber-attacks,” said Bob Bowles, RMCCDC regional director.

In second place was Southern Utah University, who will have one final chance to qualify for the national competition when they compete in the Wild Card qualifier on April 5.