The Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition has been hosted by Kennesaw State University’s Center for Information Security Education for 12 of the past 13 years.

As demand increased, a preliminary qualifying round (the “prelim”) was added, which has been facilitated by Moraine Valley Community College for the past 4 years. Recent years have seen in excess of 30 student teams entering the prelim.

A number of issues have arisen leading the KSU SECCDC coordinators to solicit proposals for an academic partnership, specifically for another academic institution in the SECCDC region to co-host future Prelim competitions. KSU’s intent is to find a partner to deploy and operate the infrastructure required for the SECCDC prelim round, as well as manage the Prelim competition itself. This will be based on a coordinated and synchronized competition design and format so that the SECCDC events are well coordinated and offer the best experiences and outcomes for competing teams. This partner would assist with recruiting teams and the necessary data collection prior to the prelim, schedule needed personnel resources, and run the prelim sessions. Upon completion of the prelim, the partner would provide results to the SECCDC Director for notification of teams eligible for the regional qualifying event.

As these events do require resources and incur costs for operations, a revenue sharing plan will be negotiated as part of the selection process.

Institutions interested in this partnership should submit a letter of interest, describing the resources the institution can apply to the event, including online VM sandboxes (e.g. NetLab+), web sites, and faculty coordinators. The SECCDC Director will review these proposals and conduct interviews with interested teams to ascertain the relative level of interest and capabilities of applicants.

If you would like to know more information as you explore your level of interest, reach out to us at infosec@kennesaw.edu. We will plan to have a series of small group conference calls depending on the level of interest and the number of interested institutions.

Mike Whitman
SECCDC Director