NUCCDC

Northeastern University's Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition Team

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). 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.

Check back at this site in late September for information regarding tryouts. You can also obtain more information regarding NUCCDC (including tryouts) by joining our mailing list or sending us an email at [email protected].

Info Session + Malware Labs

If you are interested in joining the team, we highly recommend that you come to our info sessions:

  • Monday, September 29, 7:30-9:30 pm in WVH 366
    • 7:30-8:30 pm: Info session to talk about the team and answer questions
    • 8:30-9:30 pm: Hands-on lab where you can try your hand at removing LINUX malware from an infected machine
  • Tuesday, September 30, 7:00-9:00 pm in WVH 366
    • 7:00-8:00 pm: Info session to talk about the team and answer questions
    • 8:00-9:00 pm: Hands-on lab where you can try your hand at removing WINDOWS malware from an infected machine

Feel free to come to both sessions! No experience required to participate in the Malware Labs :)

The Team

Our team consists of students from many diverse backgrounds and fields of expertise.

Hazel*'s face
Hazel*

  • Our captain
  • Focus: Industrial systems and obscure Linux things
  • Linux Lead
  • Uses NixOS, except when she’s using MacOS Big Sur (don’t ask)
  • Has a concerning habit of collecting headless laptops

Derek Ng's face
Derek Ng

  • Our coach
  • Focus: Linux

Penelope Om's face
Penelope Om

  • Focus: Linux

Thomas Dwyer's face
Thomas Dwyer

  • Focus: Windows
  • Windows lead
  • Voluntarily uses a worse kernel for laptop (Linux)
  • Regrets using .NET

Ian Agudelo's face
Ian Agudelo

  • Focus: Infrastructure & Networks
  • Networks Lead
  • Uses AD for fun

Riley Platz's face
Riley Platz

  • Focus: Web Applications
  • Web Applications Lead
  • Born to write firewall rules; forced to do frontend QA

Ari Prakash's face
Ari Prakash

  • aarch64 for the win

Incoming Members

Members currently in training to compete next season.

You could be here!

Alumni

Previous team members, captains, and coaches.

Simon Bruklich's face
Simon Bruklich

  • 2023-2025 coach
  • 2022-2023 captain, led team to 2023 CCDC Nationals
  • Focus: Windows
  • Started Windows career on XP circa 2008
  • Prefers Windows Home over Windows Pro

Shannon Assouline's face
Shannon Assouline

  • Focus: Linux
  • “i have nothing interesting about me”

Evan Defloor's face
Evan Defloor

  • Focus: Windows
  • Linux rice enthusiast
  • Got into cyber after being IP located on Omegle

Jake Ginesin's face
Jake Ginesin

  • Focus: Linux and Networking
  • Does some stuff with math that you won’t understand
  • Formally analyzed the SCTP protocol

Federico Cassano's face
Federico Cassano

  • 2023-2024 captain
  • Focus: Virtualization and Linux
  • Enjoys the Racket programming langugage
  • Likes to write papers in his free time

Ali Bobi's face
Ali Bobi

  • 2023-2024 co-captain
  • Focus: Windows
  • Vim connoisseur

Owen Seltzer's face
Owen Seltzer

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Kyle Sferrazza's face
Kyle Sferrazza

  • 2021-2022 captain, led team to CCDC Nationals
  • 2022-2023 coach
  • Focus: Linux
  • Knows every CLI argument for GNU screen
  • “Our domain controller is running out of battery!”

Max Sebso's face
Max Sebso

  • Focus: Linux

Dennis Giese's face
Dennis Giese

Michael Wang's face
Michael Wang

  • 2020-2021 coach

Matthew Kline's face
Matthew Kline

  • 2020-2021 captain
  • Focus: Windows
  • Can trigger a Blue Screen of Death on anything

Brianna Weinstein's face
Brianna Weinstein

  • Focus: Linux

Fiona McCrae's face
Fiona McCrae

  • Focus: Linux
  • Reinstalled OS on family computer to circumvent parental controls (age 12)
  • Bricked family computer

Samir Elhelw's face
Samir Elhelw

  • Focus: SOC & Windows

Hava Kantrowitz's face
Hava Kantrowitz

  • Focus: SOC & Networks