Brown undergrads take cybersecurity challenge title

A BROWN UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE cybersecurity team - Celina Stewart, second from left, Luke Camery, Sam Brebner, and Jared Schober, standing with coach John Savage - had the best plan and made the best urgent decisions to deal with a fictitious cyber attack scenario in the Philippines, winning a Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge last weekend in Washington, D.C. / COURTESY THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL
A BROWN UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE cybersecurity team - Celina Stewart, second from left, Luke Camery, Sam Brebner, and Jared Schober, standing with coach John Savage - had the best plan and made the best urgent decisions to deal with a fictitious cyber attack scenario in the Philippines, winning a Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge last weekend in Washington, D.C. / COURTESY THE ATLANTIC COUNCIL

PROVIDENCE – Four Brown University students took first place in a national cybersecurity policy competition held in Washington, D.C., on March 14-15, the first all-undergraduate team to win in the country.
The Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge is in its third year. Twenty teams were asked to assess a mock international cybersecurity crisis and develop a set of policy recommendations for U.S. government officials as part of the challenge. The event is sponsored by the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank.
Team “Brown Secure,” which is comprised of Sam Brebner, Luke Camery, Jared Schober and Celina Stewart, defeated 19 other collegiate teams to win, the university said in a press release.
“The team did a marvelous job,” said John Savage, the An Wang Professor of Computer Science and the team’s faculty coach. “At each stage of the competition they demonstrated a command of the material and gave polished presentations. They demonstrated that they were able to think on their feet and worked very well together as a team. It was a very professional performance.”
The scenario for this year’s competition involved a cyberattack in the South China Sea against the Philippines, a U.S. ally. Without knowing the source of the attack or whether it was state-sponsored, the teams had to put together a set of recommendations aimed at defusing the situation without escalating tensions.
“The idea is that you’ve had the equivalent of a 9-11, but in the cyber realm,” said Schober, a junior concentrating in political science. “So it’s September 12; what do you do?”
Stewart, a junior in the international relations concentration, said team members had diverse academic backgrounds that contributed to an effective approach.
“Luke and Sam are computer scientists, and Jared and I are more on the policy side,” she said. “It really worked out for us having people with different experiences on the team.”
Savage taught the entire team through his course, “Cybersecurity and International Relations.” Three team members have served as teaching assistants for it.
“A lot of the skills and the general knowledge about how cybersecurity relates to international politics came from the course,” said Schober.

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