ECPI’s Columbia cybersecurity team wins 1st place in national competition

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ECPI University’s Columbia campus cybersecurity team won first place in the U.S. Cyber Range competition, besting more than 1,000 teams from across the country.

The contest, hosted by Wicked6 Cyber Games, mimics real cyber threats, with teams defending against and reverse engineering malware for more than 24 hours. The ECPI team, named D0wn the L1ine,  competed March 23-24, also taking second and third place in the individual ICS Range competition as well as the top 12 spots in the Google, SimSpace, SecureWorks and SANS competitions.

The Wicked6 competition served as a fundraiser for the Women's Society of Cyberjutsu, a nonprofit dedicated to closing the gender gap and raising awareness of cybersecurity careers for women. The competition required a female team member; D0wn the L1ine has two women on the team.

“We are extremely proud of D0wn the L1ine and their Wicked6 win,” Jim Rund, ECPI University Columbia campus president, said in a news release. “This team consistently excels because our cyber program not only educates, it trains students by exposing them to what attackers are doing, how to protect against it and how they can be compromised. Competitions sharpen cybersecurity skills and enable our students to hit the ground running as industry professionals.”

D0wn the L1ine moves on to compete at the Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition, to be held at the Exchange Park in North Charleston April 9-11.

In 2021, more than 900 ECPI University students graduated with degrees in Computer and Information Science across all campuses. The university is designated by The National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense Education for the Bachelor of Science in Computer and Information Science: Cyber and Information Security Technology major, Cybersecurity Track.