Across the country, Canadian students competed in the CyberPatriot , a global youth cybersecurity competition. Out of over 300 Canadian teams the top 10 were selected to compete head to head in the CyberTitan national finals. Now in its 3rd year, CyberTitan has grown to be one of the largest national youth cyber defence competitions. So what does it take to be a CyberTitan? Through the “Meet the CyberTitans” blog series, hear from the teams that will be competing on June 8th in the first ever virtual CyberTitan competition.
Team 404_not_found: William Lyon Mackenzie Collegiate Institute, ON.
Matthew
Hi, my name is Matthew. I was always interested in technologies of different types. With previous coding experience, I decided to try out a different side of computers. CyberTitan has definitely changed my perspective on the importance of cybersecurity. It has taught me how to secure my own system, the importance of doing so, and many potential dangers of being unsafe on the computer. If I was to be trapped on an island, I would bring a pilot, a jet, and some fuel. Lastly, something interesting about me is that I love to eat different types of food!
Steven
I’m Steven, the main Linux image runner and script writer. I wanted to join CyberTitan because I have always been interested in cyber security but never had any great real world experiences. Because of this, CyberTitan seemed like the perfect choice to test my skills in a competitive environment and see how I perform under pressure. CyberTitan hasn’t significantly changed my perspective on cyber security. I’ve always known that it was extremely important, yet extremely lacking in many parts of our developed world. However, one thing I did learn from my experiences in this competition is how obscure and easily missed some security options can be, despite the fact that they are extremely important. My best memory when participating in CyberTitan would certainly be sitting down as a team and watching the final hours of the competition tick by to see if anyone would get ahead of us on the scoreboard. Luckily, while some teams managed to go above, we still made it here, to the national round of this competition.
Celeste
Hi, I’m Celeste, one of the Windows image runners and the script writer. I have been interested in technology for the past while and have enjoyed browsing through system and application settings and seeing what can be configured. Seeking vulnerabilities in systems seemed to be intriguing. Through CyberTitan, I’ve learned not only how to secure systems, but also where others can poke into them. While I do not watch television, the State of the Union and the White House Correspondents’ Dinner are both interesting “series”, if they count.
Tracy
Hi! My name is Tracy. I originally joined CyberTitan because I was, quite frankly, very ignorant about cybersecurity, and computers in general. I had no idea what a script was, and could have never imagined that there were so many ways to secure a computer. I wanted to join in order to learn more about this field and increase my knowledge. After joining CyberTitan, I realized that poor cybersecurity can be a real threat to people’s safety and privacy. Malware can corrupt computer systems, steal valuable information, and impersonate you. However, I’ve also learned from CyberTitan that despite the seemingly endless threats, a computer’s security can improve drastically with only a few simple actions, such as keeping a strong password. As for what snacks I like, I like all of them.
Quentin
Hello! I’m Quentin. I’m one of the Linux image specialists and script writers on the team. I joined CyberTitan because I have some experience in cybersecurity red team operations and was interested in the defensive side of cybersecurity operations. CyberTitan has changed my perspective by showing me that setting up secure systems and networks is really difficult. My favourite thing about participating in CyberTitan were the unexpected challenges that forced us to learn in order to succeed. My favourite social media to use would be the one that doesn’t gather my personal information.
Nathan
Hello! My name is Nathan, and I do the Cisco Networking Challenge for the team. I joined CyberTitan because I thought it would be an interesting learning experience about an interesting topic. I didn’t know too much about cybersecurity before, just that I would be careful about what I post or download. Now, looking back, I can say that this was indeed an interesting learning experience. I learned that though setting up a network can be a very complex (and sometimes frustrating) job, it is a very important one. After all, the world is just a massive, complicated network. I think my best memory participating in CyberTitan was being able to just barely finish configuring a device in the last couple minutes of the competition. The rush of satisfaction felt great.
