NUCCDC

What is NUCCDC?

The Northeastern University Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NUCCDC) Team is Northeastern’s competitive cybersecurity team. We prepare our students with the skills and knowledge needed to participate in competitions as well as to become future leaders in the cybersecurity industry. Skills we prepare our members with include Linux/Windows system administration, computer networking, incident response, and professionalism skills.

Our team is named after the main competition we participate in: the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. CCDC is an annual red-team vs. blue-team competition between colleges and universities in the United States. We compete as the blue team where we must fend off a corporate network that we manage from live attackers from the red team (who are played by industry professional pentesters). The competition is split into various regions across the US, and our team is part of the Northeast region.

In addition to CCDC, we have competed in other cybersecurity competitions such as:

How do I join?

We’re glad you’re interested in joining the team!

We have an annual tryout process which takes place between the end of September and early November. The CCDC competition starts early in the spring semester. Everyone is welcome to try out – graduates and undergraduates, as well as international students.

You can obtain more information regarding NUCCDC (including tryouts) by joining our mailing list or sending us an email at [email protected].

Tryouts

Tryouts for the 2025-2026 season are now open!

Because the competitions limit the number of people who can participate, we are unfortunately unable to allow everyone onto the team. However, we encourage everyone to apply, as we also look for students who may not be ready to compete this year but have potential to compete in a future year! The tryout process involves two rounds.

Round 1

We provide two VMs: a Windows VM and a Linux VM, each with a set of questions. You are required to choose only one set of questions to answer, but you may submit answers for both. For your answers to the tasks, please detail all the steps that you took to arrive at your solution and include screenshots as well. In addition to the tasks, we ask you to briefly describe why you are interested in joining the team. Finally, there is an optional bonus challenge that you can solve as well.

The VMs, bonus challenge, and the questions can be found here.

Once completed, email a copy of your write up to [email protected]. If you have any questions about the tasks, tryouts, or anything CCDC related, please email us at that address as well.

We encourage everyone (both undergraduate and graduate students) to try the tasks. Knowing how to Google and being persistent are the keys to success. The tryout itself is an excellent learning opportunity. Don’t worry if you can’t complete all the tasks; just do your best!

Round 1 application due date: Monday, October 20, 2024

Round 2

Around the end of October, you will hear back whether you are moving on to Round 2.

Round 2 is a short conversation with us about your goals and past computer-related experiences.

After talking to all those who have made it to Round 2, we will notify you of whether you have been accepted or not. Hopefully this will happen around mid-late November.

Good luck!