Cyber defense team prepares to compete

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Every year, internet hackers cost people billions of dollars in damage.

They shut down networks and disrupt online banks, but one local group of college students are learning how to defend those networks, in a sport unlike many others.

It doesn't quite sound like any practice you've heard before: wind sprints are replaced with key strokes.

But in a computer lab on Rose-Hulman's campus, the Cyber Defense team is gearing up for their state competition next month,

"We're the reigning champions, so we have to go and defend our title,” Sean Richardson of the Cyber Defense Team said.

The contest is—well—complex.

"There is a premise that the networks are—for instance—compromised and mis-configured. They have default passwords and lots of Malware, and we have to secure those,” Richardson explained.

It's a game of defense. While Sean Richardson and his team are working on the network, a team of professional hackers try to infiltrate their computers. It's a simulation of what banks and other online information sites go through everyday.

But for them, it's a game.

"You get points for how well you do on each of [these], how well you keep your services up and how infrequently you get hacked,” he said.

So on this weekend afternoon, Sean and the rest of the team are practicing like any good team does.

They build a basic network of computers and then crash them to find out where they are weak. Clicking, typing, and hacking their way to what they hope is a second state title and beyond.

"We did really well our first year, and I'd like to continue that and go as far as we can, I'd like to make it to nationals,” Sean said.

Working as a team online and offline.