Student-run team beats over 1,000 other schools in capture the flag challenge, earning spot in final round
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)’s student run cybersecurity club, RPISEC, recently placed 8th globally and 5th in the US-Canada region in the qualifying rounds of the annual Cyber Security Awareness Worldwide (CSAW) Capture the Flag (CTF) competition. Their placements have earned them an invitation to the final round, which will take place November 5-7 at New York University. CSAW is the largest CTF competition for college students with over 1,000 teams from around the world competing. RPISEC’s recent successes there are a demonstration of impressive hacking skills, creativity, leadership, and teamwork.
RPISEC is an entirely student-run club which focuses on teaching cybersecurity to its members and practicing their knowledge and skills in CTF competitions. The team has been slowly rebuilding after facing near dissolution during the pandemic, and they are quickly proving that they are a force to be reckoned with.
“So many passionate, dedicated, and talented students came together to make this happen,” said RPISEC secretary Joel McCandless ’27, a computer science and computer systems engineering dual major at RPI. “Everyone on the team worked so hard on these challenges, and it was out of a love for hacking. Being completely student run, there was a lot of work involved even outside of the competition, but our care for each other and the team showed in the end.”
“Watching RPISEC transform from a group of six inexperienced freshman to an internationally ranked powerhouse of a team has been an incredible experience,” said RPISEC president Paul Biernat ’27, a computer science major at RPI. “Driven by our shared passion, and supported by the RPISEC alumni who share in that as well, we have been able to make our dreams a reality.”
CTF competitions, named after the outdoor childhood game, are a way to test hacking and cybersecurity skills. The objective of the competitions is to find and hack (or “capture”) vulnerabilities (“flags”) in a series of source codes, with teams earning points for every flag they capture. At CSAW, the CTF competition runs like a game of jeopardy. Players solve tasks within cybersecurity categories, such as web, forensic, crypto, binary, etc., and advance onto more complex tasks within categories to earn more points as the competition progresses.
By competing in international CTF competitions, RPISEC members are becoming equipped with tools that will propel their success in the technology and computer software industries. RPISEC students are mastering both offensive and defensive skills in cybersecurity, which are becoming increasingly important given exponential advancements in technology, and they are doing so through real, hands-on practice in global settings.
“It’s crucial for anyone in the computer or software industry to understand how their code might be broken into, and how you can prevent making mistakes that hackers will exploit," said McCandless. “These competitions are a great way to learn and to practice.”
By placing in the top 10 and earning a spot in the final round of the largest collegiate CTF competition, RPISEC students are demonstrating their places as leaders in and shapers of the ever-increasing technological world. The team is looking forward to representing RPI at the finals in November, where they’ll test themselves against the top student teams and continue to strengthen RPI’s reputation in cybersecurity.
