The Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition PCDC is a three-day Cyber Defense Competition that is held by the Naval Information Warfare Center (NIWC) Atlantic in collaboration with the South Carolina Lowcountry Chapter of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA). PCDC 2022 will be held 9-11 April 2022. We are currently planning on holding an in-person event for PCDC 2022. PC
DC is an event for the promotion of Cyber Security education and awareness. This competition is intended to energize local high schools and colleges to invigorate focused curriculum development for the type of technical skills that are needed in today’s fast paced and challenging cyber environment. The High School competition will be held on Saturday, 9 April. The Collegiate competition will be held on Sunday, 10 April. Pro Day will be held on Monday, 11 April and will include DoD and Corporate teams. South Carolina High Schools are eligible to compete in PCDC by qualifying. Schools may qualify by finishing in the top three at the previous year's competition or by finishing in the top five in the state for the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. Once, qualified, mentors are assigned to the schools to help them prepare for the competition. The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Education Program was created by the Air Force Association to inspire high school students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation's future. More information about CyberPatriot can be found at http://www.uscyberpatriot.org. Students from each school will comprise "Blue Teams" responsible for operating a small network while protecting the infrastructure from "Red Team" (hacker) attacks. Blue Teams will be scored for accomplishing administrative and business tasks while maintaining network/service availability (such as mail, database and web servers) as well as their ability to detect and respond to threats. Students must be able to configure and protect their network. Blue Teams must also be able to respond to business requests such as the addition or removal of services, and balance security needs against business needs. Each school will be allowed a team of up to 6 student participants to compete against other South Carolina teams. Students must have computer networking and security configuration skills to participate. NIWC will provide each school with mentors and advisors that will help answer questions as the team prepares for the competition. Blue Team Packages including schedules, rules, and other important details, will be provided to assist teams and schools in preparing for the competition. The top three teams will receive trophies, prizes and cash towards scholarships. . Competitions will be an all day event followed by awards presentations and a networking opportunity where representatives of local technology companies and NIWC Leadership.
