Terra State ranks high in NSA Codebreaker Challenge

FREMONT — For the second year in a row, cybersecurity students from Terra State Community College placed within the top 30 schools to complete the National Security Agency Codebreaker Challenge, taking second place among community colleges and 28th overall. This year, 466 colleges and universities participated in the challenge, which began in August 2021. Students applied skills like cracking passwords, social engineering, reverse engineering software and complex mathematical computations to solve problems in a fictional scenario. Terra State's team of 38 students has grown since 2020, when 33 cybersecurity students from Terra State competed. The pool of competitors grew as well — the 2021 round saw 14 new colleges enter the race. Johni Eberly, a computer information systems and networking support student at Terra State, was excited for an opportunity to apply the knowledge she gained in her coursework to a real-life scenario. "A distinct memory I have while working on the challenge was when our instructor, Michael Daigneault, hosted an all-day event dedicated to breaking the challenges," Eberly said. Daigneault, an assistant professor at Terra State, led the team of students to their high mark. "[Students'] critical thinking and creative skills are challenged with tasks such as the NSA Codebreaker Challenge to create solutions that normally cannot be duplicated until they enter the real world of work," Daigneault said. "Watching the excitement from students going through the challenge has brought me great joy, and I look forward to competing again this year."