Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition 2023 High School Kickoff Meeting - February 2023

Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition 2023
      High School Kickoff Meeting
                     February 2023

                                                     PCDC X High School Day is
                                                          scheduled for
                                                          15 April 2023

                  Scott Bell PCDC Director
  Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic (NIWC Atlantic)
                   For PCDC Planning Purposes Only

Venue
PCDC will be in person this year at Trident Technical College
located at 7000 Rivers Ave, North Charleston, SC 29406
(https://goo.gl/maps/BvWM46WSmxifbYJF7).
 Saturday, 15 April: High Schools
 Sunday, 16 April: Colleges
 Monday, 17 April: Pro Day: Gov’t and Corp

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Our Goals
Science, Technology, Engineer and Mathematics (STEM) Outreach: This competition
is intended to energize students, high schools & colleges to focus on curriculum
development for the type of technical skills that we need in today’s fast paced &
challenging cyber environment. This will include cybersecurity technical skills that
are often taught only at the post graduate college level but need to be introduced at a
much earlier age. Valuable practical experience is gained by students in a sector that
needs more talented workers to meet growing cybersecurity challenges in the business
environment. We need to develop our future cybersecurity workforce.

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2023 High Schools
Palmetto Scholars Academy – 1st place 2022

Swofford – 2nd place 2022

Home School STEM – 3rd place 2022
Qualified through CyberPatriot:

AAST
Academic Magnet
Ashley Ridge
Clover
East Cooper
Silver Bluff
Stratford

The Competition
▼High School Blue Teams will be responsible for operating a small network while
protecting the network infrastructure from Red Team (hackers) attacks. Blue
Teams will be scored for accomplishing administrative and business tasks while
maintaining network/service availability (such as mail, database and web servers)
as well as their ability to detect and respond to threats. Students must be able to
configure and protect their network. Teams must also be able to respond to business
requests such as the addition or removal of services, and balance security needs
against business needs.

▼Competition scenario this year: Teams will be operating the Palmetto’s Choice
Diamond Commercial Airline. The previous IT staff was fired for leaving the
network insecure and poorly configured, though operable. You will have 90
minutes to secure the network before hackers attack.

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TStatement A: Approved for Public Release. Distribution is unlimited (8 June 2017).   6

Saturday, April 15
            High School Competition/Hack Warz Schedule (Draft)

7:45 am – 8:15 am:    Connectivity Checks (PCDC Network)
8:15 am –8:30 am:     Blue Teams Briefing/Opening Ceremony
8:30 am –10:00 am:    Competition begins/Initial Injects/Secure the Network
8:30 am – 8:50 am:    Hack Warz continuity checks
8:50 am – 9:00 am:    Hack Warz opening ceremonies
9:00 am – 2:30 pm:    Hack Warz at PCDC competition
10:00 am – 3:00 pm:        Operate PCDC Network Under Hacker Attacks
3:00 pm – 3:15 pm:    Red Team members visit Blue Teams?
3:15 pm – 3:30 pm:    Break
3:30 pm – 4:10 pm:    Blue Team Presentations
4:10 pm – 4:20 pm:    Gold Team Debrief: Common Mistakes
4:20 pm – 4:30 pm:    Red Team Debrief: Common Mistakes
4:30 pm – 4:40 pm:    Speaker: SSC Atlantic Leadership
4:40 pm – 5:00 pm:    Awards / Closing Ceremony (Hack Warz & PCDC)

                         TStatement A: Approved for Public Release. Distribution is unlimited (8 June 2017).   7

Preparation
▼Each team should be prepared for:
      Operating Systems - ex: Debian, CentOS, Ubuntu, Red Hat, Windows
      Email Services - ex: Zimbra, MS Exchange, Sendmail
      Databases: - ex: SQL, MySQL, Maria
      Web Services: - ex: Apache, IIS
      Enumerating a network
      Scan tools: - ex: OpenVAS, Nessus
      Command line shells - ex: BASH, KSH
▼Complete and submit Consent/Registration form
      Team Registration form due back early March.
      Must be typed and signed, indicating you have read the Preparation Guide,
       including rules.
▼Review PCDC Prep Guide (PCDC website)
▼Review the Blue Team Packet
      Available on PCDC website approximately 24 hours prior to event
      It has passwords and other essential information
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Mentoring
▼ Each team will have a NIWC assigned mentor(s)
     Weekly for approximately 1 to 2 hours
     Face-to-Face and/or virtually
▼ Training Resources:
       Great site for Linux images: http://www.osboxes.org/
       Great training videos: pivotproject.org
       NETLABs hosted at TTC. Sessions available 24x7
       PCDC-SC.com Blue Team Area
▼ Suggested Mentoring subjects:
    •   Intro to IT Security
    •   Operating Systems Secure Configuration: Windows, Linux/CentOS/Ubuntu
    •   How to Mitigate
    •   Networking Fundamentals/Password Security                 •Virtual Firewalls
    •   Business practices/injects/scoring                        •Docker Containers
    •   Reviewing Blue Team and Preparation Guide with schools    •Digital Forensics
    •   Database (CRM, Maria, MySQL)/firewall/etc back ups        •Intrusion Detection

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Important Concepts
▼ Topics:
      Changing default passwords
      Updating software, Patching
      Stay focused, learn & have fun
      Problem solving
      Teamwork
      Don’t block scoring engine
      Don’t antagonize Red Team
      Incident response
      Crisis management
      Intrusion detection
      Stay calm
      Social Engineering
      Inject completion within time limits
      Attention to detail

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Event Schedule
▼Prior to start of opening ceremonies, teams will receive their pre-brief.
▼Every student will get a SWAG bag. Additional SWAG is still being ordered so
check latest Enterprise PPT on PCDC web site to get the most up to date listing.
▼Competition is continuous, but teams may break for lunch.
▼Final inject: Each team must provide a short 5 minute brief at the end of the day
on what they liked, disliked and learned during the competition.
▼Winning team gets to keep a large “Stanley Cup” like trophy for one year and a
smaller matching trophy to keep.
▼Each member of top three teams get individual medals.

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Event Administration
Each team will consist of :
     3-6 students
     1 advisor (not allowed to help team unless brought in by NIWC mentor on a
      case-by-case basis)
     A NIWC Blue Team Mentor provided by NIWC (hands-off) to advise during
      the event
     No alternates can participate except in very extreme circumstances (and must
      have a completed registration form)
Teams will use laptops to access Amazon workspace virtual desktops
You can trust:
     Your Blue team mentor/White team judge(s)
     Gold Team (networking/staff)
     Anyone designated by the Director
Injects:
     Points are scored for successfully completing injects on time
     No credit for late injects
     Teams will receive several initial injects, plus several injects across the day.
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Team Responsibilities
6 team members will use their own laptops running their
network
Secure/know your network/services, 90 minutes till Red
Team attacks, may be scanned from the beginning
   Potential Services: Email, Web
   Potential OSs: Windows, Linux
Protect PII (SSNs, credit card #s, etc)
Perform accounts management
Protect services
Complete injects/business operation requests
Identify malware & intrusions
React to Social Engineering attempts
Consider assigning a team lead to track and assign
responsibilities for injects and monitoring services
NO hacking attempts by Blue teams against anyone as this
will result in immediate disqualification!
NO cell phones are to be used to consult with others outside
your team during the competition!
                      TStatement A: Approved for Public Release. Distribution is unlimited (8 June 2017).   13

Important Links
▼PCDC Website: pcdc-sc.com
▼PCDC Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/PalmettoCyberDefenseCompetition
▼PCDC Twitter: https://twitter.com/PalmettoCyber
▼Cyber Patriot: http://www.uscyberpatriot.org
▼AFCEA: http://charleston.afceachapter.org/
▼#PCDC
▼Scholarship for Service: https://www.sfs.opm.gov/StudFAQ.aspx

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PCDC Primary POCs
▼ Scott Bell, NIWC - PCDC Director
   Email: scott.h.bell.civ@us.navy.mil

▼ Dennis Wilson, NIWC - Blue Team Mentor Lead
   Email: dennis.r.wilson18.civ@us.navy.mil

Wrap Up
▼ We are looking for motivated, enthusiastic students willing to
  put in the time and effort to prepare for and compete in an
  exciting, rewarding and challenging Palmetto Cyber Defense
  Competition
▼ Questions?

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