IT students participate in state Cyber Defense Competition

Information Technology students from Minnesota State Community and Technical College (M State) participated in the 2025 Minnesota State Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. Eight teams from 10 schools across the state took part in the full-day event; M State competed as a joint team with Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM). 

The competition was held by the Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence and took place at Alexandria Technical and Community College on January 25. Teams were provided with identical hardware and software sets and scored on how well they detected and responded to a series of cybersecurity challenges, including outside threats, server availability and the security needs of businesses.

M State students who competed were: Caleb Jablonsky, Alexander Lowrance, Rafael Murillo III, Anwar Sibai, Cyrus Sarabakhsh and Christian Schenck. MSUM team members included Ismail Bare, Hawi Daba, Judah Nava, Minara Sooriyaarachchi and Jon Tweeton. M State faculty members Tim Jaafaru and Tim Preuss coached the team.

In total, over 100 students joined in this year’s day of competition and learning in Minnesota, along with many additional student, faculty and industry volunteers. Teams competed in a controlled virtual environment that had been ‘hacked,’ assuming the protective duties for a simulated commercial network with multiple users and standard internet services such as a web server, mail server and e-commerce site.

The state competition is an annual event, with the first-place team advancing to a regional competition. Regional winners then advance to nationals.