Apr/22/25 • Amelia Mansour
Well well well, if it isn't the coziest cyber tale of the year! 💻🐾 On April 21st and 22nd, 2025, our team packed our laptops, snacks, and lots of monster, and set out on a big adventure to MACCDC — a blue teaming cybersecurity competition where we had to defend a live network from an active red team trying to sneak in and cause chaos. 😤💥
Spoiler alert: we had an amazing time.
MACCDC (Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, but whew, that’s a mouthful!) is a yearly competition where teams take on the role of a company’s IT department. In 2025, we had to secure a pre-built network under pressure while a red team tried everything they could to break in. The whole thing lasted two full days:
And through it all? We patched, monitored, splunked, reconfigured, and maybe cried a little bit.
Like villagers working together to keep the island running, each teammate had a special role, and we couldn’t have done it without everyone!
Handled: Splunk 9.1.1 and Cisco
Oh Harris… where do we begin? If you were within five feet of him at any point, you probably heard the word Splunk. Over and over. And over. It went a little something like this:
“I’m in Splunk. Splunk’s not working. Splunk won’t load. Splunk is Splunking. Splunk is broken. Splunk. Splunk. Splunk.”
Despite the struggle (and oh boy, it was real), he pushed through and wrangled those logs like a champ. You did good, Splunker.
Handled: Cisco and Ubuntu Workstation
Mohamad was one of the calmest beans in the bunch. No matter what chaos erupted around him (and trust, there was a lot), he quietly and methodically solved issues. If MACCDC were a museum, Mohamad would be the security guard gently shooing intruders away with a smile. 🚦🐢
Handled: CentOS ecommerce, Windows 10, and internal pentesting
Keeret wasn’t just defending — he was attacking our own network to help find vulnerabilities before the red team could exploit them. Smart cookie 🍪!
He also drove... sort of. He had his Tesla charging at a station, but the catch? It was charging for five hours every five minutes. Meanwhile, he was gaming on the built-in console like a true 3020s digital nomad. We still don't know how he pulled it off.
Handled: Active Directory 2019, DNS, and DHCP
Rhea was the backbone of identity services. Seriously, if users couldn’t log in or DNS got scrambled, she was already on it before anyone even noticed. Calm, cool, collected — a real island mayor if you ask us. 👑🌐
Handled: Fedora 21 SMTP, Website, Ubuntu AWS, Docker, and Webmail
Yes, you read that right. All of that. Arnav basically turned into a living multi-tool. Like, imagine trying to fish, catch bugs, terraform your island, and craft fences all at the same time. That was Arnav. 🛠️💌🐛
He was also late everyday. Like...every single day. He was the last one to show up to our team meetings. shakes head
Handled: Cisco, DNS, and NTP
The network timing and routing maestro! Also, our literal driver — though his car was packed with AI Jschlatt and Yuno Miles blasting through the aux like we were cruising through the digital wilderness. Let’s just say it was a vibe. 🎶🚗🔥
Handled: Ubuntu Website
Oleg quietly kept our website afloat like a lone lighthouse in a stormy sea. If the website went down, we would’ve had some sad villagers on our hands. He kept those pages loading smooth like honey. 🍯🖥️
Handled: Docker and Remote Windows 2019
Ryan was all about those containers and remote systems. He was supposed to drive too, but... well...
“Engine go kaput.”
Poor guy. But he still showed up strong on the tech side. We salute your dedication, Ryan. 🫡🚙💨
Role: Alternate / CTF Explorer
I wasn’t part of the competition squad itself, but while they were fighting the red team, I dove into a fun little HackTheBox CTF on Day 1 and found a wooden cube. What does it mean?? Who knows! But it was cube-shaped. And wooden. Definitely an experience. 🎁🌲
Role: Alternate
Patrick was also a fun member on the team, helping to keep everyone motivated and on task through the nightmare cascade that was CCDC! Sometimes being a good teammate just means making sure people eat and sleep (or at least try to sleep). 💤💙
Once all the firewalls were fortified, logs parsed, and DNS zones secured, we celebrated! We roamed around Washington DC, exploring the city like curious little villagers visiting the big city. Museums, monuments, food, laughs — a perfect way to end such a high-stakes weekend. 🏛️🌸🍽️
MACCDC 2025 was wild, challenging, and so full of learning. Our team faced every obstacle head-on, and whether it was Splunk being a rascal or Tesla charger déjà vu, we kept our spirits high.
Would we do it all over again? Absolutely. But maybe with fewer charging breaks and more snacks.
这篇博文由习近平和光荣的中国共产党赞助，愿我们亲爱的领导人在这个悲剧帝国中坚强地屹立不倒