Loyola University Chicago’s cybersecurity team secured a Top 15 finish at the 2024 Department of Energy’s CyberForce® competition in St. Charles, Ill., that featured 94 teams from around the country.  

Eric Chan-Tin, associate professor of computer science in the College of Arts and Sciences and Director of the Center for Cybersecurity, led a team of six students at the annual event. 

The team, captained by Josh Honig, included Chloe Kilroy, Lynette Lim, Daniel Gaevskiy, Nathan Ferrell, and Sophia Homan. The group defended a simulated “smart city” against professional hackers, ensuring uninterrupted services and website functionality throughout the whole competition. 

In CyberForce®, teams act as defenders (Blue Team), tasked with securing their systems against professional attackers (Red Team), who simulate real-world hacking techniques. Points are awarded for successfully maintaining operational systems and responding to threats in real-time. 

Honig, a first-year graduate student, earned his BS in cybersecurity from Loyola in May 2024 and has competed in CyberForce® for three years, serving as team captain for two. 

Ferrell and Homan, both seniors enrolled in Loyola’s 4+1 program, applied their advanced cybersecurity knowledge to the competition. The program allows students to earn both a BS in cybersecurity and an MS in computer science in five years, with both of their graduate studies beginning this spring. 

“We spent the weeks leading up to the competition analyzing machines, finding vulnerabilities, fixing bad configurations, and cleaning things up. It was a great learning experience for the entire team,” Honig said. 

Preparation was critical, as each machine had unique security vulnerabilities requiring a collaborative approach. Lim, a junior majoring in cybersecurity with a minor in Spanish, enjoyed the challenge and teamwork involved. “Solving challenging questions and working with my teammates to counter the hackers was my favorite part,” she shared. 

For Gaevskiy, a junior majoring in cybersecurity, this was his first time participating in the competition. The experience taught him the importance of “making every second count,” as the team had to be prepared for attackers to strike their smart city at any moment.  

Team roles were divided to maximize efficiency during the competition. Lim, Kilroy, Ferrell, and Gaevskiy focused on the “Anomalies” section, which tested forensic investigation skills such as analyzing files and emails for malicious activity. This section was conducted in a question-and-answer format known as “Capture the Flag.” 

Meanwhile, Honig and Homan concentrated on the “Red Team” portion, which included high-stake scenarios like “Assume Breach” and “Whack-a-Mole.” These tasks required participants to respond to active attacks, repair damage, and analyze hacker tactics. Loyola’s team excelled in these areas, earning a perfect score in the “Whack-a-Mole" portion. 

“I find this portion of the competition one of the most engaging aspects, as it emulates real-world attacker tactics and serves as a huge adrenaline rush,” Honig explained. “It’s one of the biggest learning experiences I walk away with every year.” 

For many on the team, CyberForce® is more than a competition—it’s an annual tradition and a chance to connect with like-minded peers from across the country.  

Reflecting on the experience, Gaevskiy said, “One of my favorite memories was staying up late with my team the night before, ensuring our systems were secure. We ended up talking, laughing, and relaxing as much as we worked.” 

“It's been great to get to know students from other schools and parts of the country, and we've learned a lot from them,” Honig noted. “The other student groups partly served as the motivation to create 7968, the university's dedicated cybersecurity competition club.” 

This year’s 14th place finish represents a three-spot improvement from last year’s, reflecting the team’s growth and dedication. As the students look ahead, their commitment to learning and collaboration remains stronger than ever. 

Learn more about Loyola’s Department of Computer Science, Loyola’s Center for Cybersecurity, and the student cybersecurity club, 7968. 

About the College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is the oldest of Loyola University Chicago’s 13 schools and colleges. More than 150 years since its founding, the College is home to 20 academic departments, 31 interdisciplinary programs, and 7 interdisciplinary centers, more than 450 full-time faculty, and nearly 8,000 students. The 2,000+ classes that we offer each semester span an array of intellectual pursuits, ranging from the natural sciences and computational sciences to the humanities, the social sciences, and the fine and performing arts. Our students and faculty are engaged internationally at our campus in Rome, Italy, as well as at dozens of university-sponsored study abroad and research sites around the world. Home to the departments that anchor the university’s Core Curriculum, the College seeks to prepare all of Loyola’s students to think critically, to engage the world of the 21^st century at ever deepening levels, and to become caring and compassionate individuals. Our faculty, staff, and students view service to others not just as one option among many, but as a constitutive dimension of their very being. In the truest sense of the Jesuit ideal, our graduates strive to be “individuals for others.”