Orange Hacker’s Association travels around the country for national cybersecurity competitions
Courtesy of Steve Sartori
Groups members don't need a cybersecurity background to be part of the club.
Syracuse University’s Orange Hacker’s Association, a club composed of students who have a passion for cybersecurity, does not break into computers to steal money or information.
The group competes in events across the country, where they work with computer systems and program applications.
Many people believe that the word “hackers” has a negative connotation, said Kevin Du, a professor in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. He’s the club’s faculty adviser and a leading cybersecurity researcher.
“The ‘hacker’ term is neutral,” Du said. “It doesn’t mean they are the bad guys; it just means that people like to play with the system and find out how it works.”
Ashutosh Rana and Dhruv Verma, both cybersecurity graduate students, are members of the group. Rana said he started the club because he wanted to create a community for people interested in cybersecurity.
The club works hard throughout the year to prepare for competitions across the country, Verma said. The competitions are often paired with conferences so students can listen to cybersecurity experts.
Du said competitions only last a few days. There are various competitions where one hacking team attacks another.
Verma said during competitions, the hackers are asked to build secure applications. When the group is defending against an attack, members create an application that blocks a rival team from entering their computer system.
The group recently traveled to the University of Connecticut to attend the CyberSEED conference, which included hacking competitions. In the Application Security competition, the Orange Hacker’s Association ranked second and received a $7,500 prize.
The team also attended New York University’s Cyber Security Awareness Week — the largest student-run cybersecurity event in the world. While there, group members learned more about the law aspect of cybersecurity, Rana said.
The group members don’t need a background in cybersecurity, and Verma said there are no prerequisites to join the club.
“Our goal is really to teach them what they need to know,” he said.
Published on November 26, 2017 at 10:14 pm
Contact Shayna: sscott01@syr.edu
