Northeastern University's Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Team
What is NUCCDC?
The Northeastern University Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NUCCDC) Team is Northeastern’s competitive cybersecurity team. We prepare our students with the skills and knowledge needed to participate in competitions as well as to become future leaders in the cybersecurity industry. Skills we prepare our members with include Linux/Windows system administration, computer networking, incident response, and professionalism skills.
Our team is named after the main competition we participate in: the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. CCDC is an annual red-team vs. blue-team competition between colleges and universities in the United States. We compete as the blue team where we must fend off a corporate network that we manage from live attackers from the red team (who are played by industry professional pentesters). The competition is split into various regions across the US, and our team is part of the Northeast region.
In addition to CCDC, we have competed in other cybersecurity competitions such as:
How do I join?
We’re glad you’re interested in joining the team!
We have an annual tryout process which takes place between the end of September and early November. The CCDC competition starts early in the spring semester. Everyone is welcome to try out – graduates and undergraduates, as well as international students.
You can obtain more information regarding NUCCDC (including tryouts) by joining our mailing list or sending us an email at [email protected].
The Team
Our team consists of students from many diverse backgrounds and fields of expertise.
Hazel*
- Our captain
- Focus: Industrial systems and obscure Linux things
- Linux Lead
- Uses NixOS, except when she’s using MacOS Big Sur (don’t ask)
- Has a concerning habit of collecting headless laptops
Derek Ng
- Our coach
- Focus: Linux
Penelope Om
- Focus: Linux
Thomas Dwyer
- Focus: Windows
- Windows lead
- Voluntarily uses a worse kernel for laptop (Linux)
- Regrets using .NET
Ian Agudelo
- Focus: Infrastructure & Networks
- Networks Lead
- Uses AD for fun
Riley Platz
- Focus: Web Applications
- Web Applications Lead
- Born to write firewall rules; forced to do frontend QA
Ari Prakash
- aarch64 for the win
Incoming Members
Members currently in training to compete next season.
You could be here!
Alumni
Previous team members, captains, and coaches.
Simon Bruklich
- 2023-2025 coach
- 2022-2023 captain, led team to 2023 CCDC Nationals
- Focus: Windows
- Started Windows career on XP circa 2008
- Prefers Windows Home over Windows Pro
Shannon Assouline
- Focus: Linux
- “i have nothing interesting about me”
Evan Defloor
- Focus: Windows
- Linux rice enthusiast
- Got into cyber after being IP located on Omegle
Jake Ginesin
- Focus: Linux and Networking
- Does some stuff with math that you won’t understand
- Formally analyzed the SCTP protocol
Federico Cassano
- 2023-2024 captain
- Focus: Virtualization and Linux
- Enjoys the Racket programming langugage
- Likes to write papers in his free time
Ali Bobi
- 2023-2024 co-captain
- Focus: Windows
- Vim connoisseur
Owen Seltzer
-
Kyle Sferrazza
- 2021-2022 captain, led team to CCDC Nationals
- 2022-2023 coach
- Focus: Linux
- Knows every CLI argument for GNU screen
- “Our domain controller is running out of battery!”
Max Sebso
- Focus: Linux
Michael Wang
- 2020-2021 coach
Matthew Kline
- 2020-2021 captain
- Focus: Windows
- Can trigger a Blue Screen of Death on anything
Brianna Weinstein
- Focus: Linux
Fiona McCrae
- Focus: Linux
- Reinstalled OS on family computer to circumvent parental controls (age 12)
- Bricked family computer
Samir Elhelw
- Focus: SOC & Windows
Hava Kantrowitz
- Focus: SOC & Networks