C2 was a sponsor and participant in the eleventh annual Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NECCDC) at Champlain College in Burlington on March 15-17. NECCDC tests each team’s ability to operate, secure, manage and maintain a corporate network, creating a realistic administration and security experience to challenge the next generation of tech experts.

Thanks to C2 employees, this year’s NECCDC was a fun and educational experience for the students, staff and more than 70 volunteers who turned out to attend or support this unique event. C2’s Taylor Harris served as captain of the Black Team, guiding students through multiple challenges, including creating a disaster recovery plan, defending a system from hackers and rebuilding/restoring a network from backup.

“I received a ton of questions on how students could become more involved with system administration and engineering,” Harris said. “And that’s what the whole competition is all about: creating that interest that allows students to take this outside the classroom and experiment on their own. Nothing is more valuable than someone that is truly passionate about what they do.”

According to C2’s Jeremiah Alexander, who also attended the event, watching the students apply what they’ve read in books to solve real-world problems was rewarding to watch.

“At many points of the competition, every judge in the room wanted to help the students, but we had to stand back and let them make the same mistakes that we did when we were starting out,” Alexander said. “It was a great experience, and we met other people in the industry that were genuinely interested in talking tech with us.”

C2 looks forward to participating in NECCDC again next year.