HACK NDSU: A Real-world Event to Promote Student Interest in Cybersecurity

TL;DR

This paper describes Hack NDSU, an educational hacking event where students safely tested real university networks, aiming to inspire interest in cybersecurity and offering a novel blueprint for similar future initiatives.

Contribution

It introduces a unique, supervised educational hacking event on production systems and provides a detailed blueprint for organizing such initiatives.

Findings

Students gained practical cybersecurity experience.

The event successfully motivated student interest in cybersecurity.

No prior similar educational hacking event on production systems is documented.

Abstract

Hack NDSU let students scan, probe, and hack North Dakota State University's campus network, under professionals' supervision, providing an aspirational experience, potentially motivating them to enter the field. This paper provides a blueprint for educational hacking events against production systems. No prior educational event of this type is known.