[COMPETITION]
Cybersecurity competitions play a vital role in driving innovation and fostering talent. Cyber@UCI hosts competition teams for members who want to dive deeper and prove themselves against the up-and-coming cybersecurity community.
As of Spring 2025, we have teams for the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC), the Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition (CPTC), and Capture the Flags (CTFs). We have also competed in Hivestorm, eCitadel, and the Collegiate Incident Response Competition for Undergraduate Students (CIRCUS). We have major accomplishments at the regional and national levels.
The Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC) is the premier collegiate cybersecurity competition in the United States. Over 100 teams across different regions compete every year. It is endorsed by Congress and sponsored by top defense companies, with winners receiving special attention as to recruitment.
The scenario is that each collegiate team, also known as the "Blue Team", inherits an identical corporate network and has to secure it against a live team of professional penetration testers and red teamers, alongside maintaining critical services, handling business tasks, and providing customer service.
It’s the best applied cybersecurity experience you can get in college - competitors become well-rounded individuals who would excel in any security role, may that be system administrators, security engineers, DevOps engineers, pentesters/red teamers, or governance risk and compliance specialists. CCDC competitors also become used to working in stressful situations and working in a tight-knit team to defend against red teamers.
May 2025: UC Irvine wins Alamo Cup at UTSA's 20th National Collegiate Cyber Defense Championship
July 2024: Cyber@UCI team places fourth in national cybersecurity competition
April 2024: UCI Advances to National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition