Cyber Initiatives Club (CIC)
Who We Are
The Cyber Initiative Club's primary mission is outreach and education in the Brigade and Community, while also being the Brigade's liaison to the Center for Cyber Security Studies. In addition, the club competes in policy competitions and provides the manpower for many of the events put on by the Cyber Center.
This semester, our primary focus will be establishing an active presence around The Yard and expanding the role of the club. Hack the Yard, a 10th Fleet hackathon hosted in Dahlgren, is proudly supported by the CIC who will be providing the manpower to run the event. Members will also support the Cyber Summit that will be held this Spring, as well as a publication put out by the Cyber Center.
We will be expanding our role in the city of Annapolis and are now working in conjunction with the USNA STEM Center to reach high school and middle school students in the area. We are also expanding our partnership with the Boys and Girls Club to other surrounding locations.
In addition to our outreach work, we are going to be holding twice monthly meetings, featuring guest speakers who are leaders in both the civilian and military sectors, as well as hosting round table discussions and debates. We will also be holding training in conjunction with the Academy's Cyber Security Team to teach technical skills that aren't taught in the classroom.
Recent Events
2015 NYU CSAW Policy Competition
In our second year in the competition, we improved on our second and third place finish in 2014, taking the top spot in the national competition. The NYU CSAW Policy Competition challenges students to propose public policy solutions to real-world computer security challenges. The 2015 challenge centered around the controversial question of whether or not the United States should implement a "bug bounty" program-- a system of rewards for security researchers who find vulnerabilities in major software programs and networks. Although their proposals differed widely, all finalists recommended legislative changes that would eliminate penalties for white hat hacking that helps institutions find flaws in their networks.
Download the winning paper here:
First Place: Software Identified Exploits Reporting and Reward Agency
Team members: MIDNs Zachary Dannelly, Max Goldwasser, William Young
2014 NYU CSAW Policy Competition
In our first year of the competition, we took second and third place in the final round of New York University’s Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) policy competition, the newest event in the largest student-run cybersecurity conference in the nation. Each team had to draft a detailed policy paper addressing security issues involving the Internet of Things (networked household appliances such as refrigerators, thermostats, and security systems.) Subsequently, the teams gave a detailed presentation to a distinguished panel of judges drawn from academia, government, and private industry and fielded detailed questions regarding their policy proposals.
Download our papers here:
Second Place: "Is Your Milk Safe? Policy For A New Era Of Computer Crime"
Third Place: "A Policy Proposal on the Security of Networked Consumer Appliances"
