UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Penn State Competitive Cyber Security Organization (CCSO) took second place at the Great Lakes Regional Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition (CPTC), held Oct. 19-20 at Baldwin Wallace University in Cleveland. 

“Our students pulled off a fantastic performance of red teaming, penetration testing, in-person interaction with a client and reporting their findings,” said Nick Giacobe, associate teaching professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and CCSO adviser. “Highlighting this year’s event was a much-improved access to the team’s customer network, excellent reporting that combined technical and business-oriented details and much more.” 

CCSO members included Liam Geyer, president; Jenna Fox, past president; Jonathan Skeete, offensive captain; Asa Reynolds, content development chair; Robert Roderick and Maguire Younes. The team is hoping to earn a wildcard slot to participate in the global CPTC competition in January. Alternates Cy Fisher, webmaster, and Bailey Milanovich, event planner, will be training with the team to prepare. 

DePaul University won the regional competition and an automatic bid to the global event. Rochester Institute of Technology took third. Other competitors included regional host Baldwin Wallace, University at Buffalo, Cedarville University, Indiana Institute of Technology, Purdue University and the University of Northern Iowa.