In the National Cyber League (NCL) Fall 2023 Power Rankings, Anderson University (SC) moved up to 1st place in the Southeast and fifth place in the nation (up from ninth place nationally in the Spring). AU is also the highest-ranked Christian institution in the nation for the second semester in a row. A total of 521 colleges and universities across the country competed in the NCL Fall 2023 Games.
Power rankings are determined by each school’s Top Individual, Top Team and Number of Participants.
“Increasingly, companies are looking to hire cybersecurity students with CTF accomplishments. We recently had a student earn a high-value internship where the company shared that she was the only candidate with National Cyber League experience, and she got the job. I’m so proud of the AU cyber team’s accomplishments in this semester’s NCL,” said Anderson University Center for Cybersecurity Director Dr. Kenneth Knapp. “The students did amazing work!”
“It is such a blessing to see our students compete at such an elite level,” said Cybersecurity Professor Dr. Brandon Grech. “This is a testimony of their hard work and preparation inside and outside the classroom. Students here at Anderson University have access to a high-quality Christian education and a high-quality cybersecurity education. Our students have incredible skills, hearts, and motivation here at AU. As their coach, it is such a fun experience being a part of their developmental journey. Praise God.”
Out of 1,050 teams in the team game, seventh place went to bebo@AU (Eric Watkins, Seth Taylor, JW Stephens, Joshua Karpus, Andrew Emerson, Mason Kellam and Nicholas Fowler) and 42nd place went to AU_PH1SH3RSOFM3N (Camden Sloan, Aaron McCurry, Charlie Paddock, Patrick Bratten, Kyle Beauregard, Noah Perricelli and Zachary Lee).
Out of the 7,930 students registered in the individual game, Eric Watkins (Splorpy) placed seventh, Seth Taylor (cloverblack44) placed 10th, Aaron McCurry (at0m1c) placed 69th, Camden Sloan (goPH!$H) placed 97th and Joshua Karpus (KarpetK) placed 145th.
AU Team members:
- bebo@AU: Eric Watkins, Seth Taylor, JW Stephens, Joshua Karpus, Andrew Emerson, Mason Kellam, and Nicholas Fowler
- AU_PH1SH3RSOFM3N: Camden Sloan, Aaron McCurry, Charlie Paddock, Patrick Bratten, Kyle Beauregard, Noah Perricelli, and Zachary Lee
- Silly Goose Police: Kendall Davenport, Genevieve Bronson, Jaimee Smith, Sofia Deambrosi, Lucy Ray, Jack Treaster, and Caleb Boyter
- The Keyboard Warriors: Branson Bailey, Meredith Frick, Courtney Blum, Grant Burton, and Thomas Cain
- EncrypTitans@AU: Joshua Cordeiro, Jacob Cordeiro, Amanda Grubb, Charles Flaherty, and Cory Freeburn
- Dys-Connect: Dylan Wyatt
- re:boot: Michael Pavel
The complete Power Rankings can be found online here.
The Individual Game and Team Game Leaderboard can be found here.
The NCL Games offer students a variety of challenges to test their cybersecurity skills in areas that include identifying hackers, auditing vulnerable websites and recovering from ransomware attacks. Prospective students who are interested in learning more about Anderson University’s cybersecurity competition teams should reach out to Dr. Grech at bgrech@andersonuniversity.edu.
The Anderson University Center for Cybersecurity trains students to meet the unique demands of today’s cybersecurity industry. Degree tracks focus on cybersecurity with specializations in analytics, criminal justice, or mathematics. Details can be found online.