In a high-stakes test of skill and strategy, Missouri State University’s Association for Business Information Technology students (A-BITS) team rose to the challenge, earning a wild card win at the Midwest Regional Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (MWCCDC).  

For eight grueling hours on Feb. 22, the team fended off cyberattacks, safeguarded 10 virtual machines, tackled business tasks and responded to security incidents. 

Despite a rough start, the team fought its way through the competition without breaks. It finished second place overall among 16 top teams from eight states. 

The team members and their roles 

• Mark Ablai (Linux admin) 
• Makaylee Doza (incident response and web admin) 
• Tyler Olson (team captain and incident response) 
• Bennett Riegel (firewall admin) 
• Jessica Snare (co-team captain and inject manager) 
• Aidan Woodyard (Windows admin) 
• Ian Ulrich (scripting engineer and Linux admin) 
• Dr. Zongxi Liu (mentor and assistant professor in the information technology and cybersecurity (ITC) department)

“Good credit goes to our faculty support from Dr. Liu, who was our training professor, and Dr. Xiang Guo, the ITC department head, for their support in training, as well as facility resources,” Olson said.  

The road to regionals 

Missouri State has participated in the MWCCDC qualifier annually since 2021. This year, the team competed in the Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin qualifier round, securing third place in the state and eighth overall out of 21 teams.  

Its performance in the qualifier earned the team a spot in the wild card round. The second-place finish means the team will compete at the 2025 Midwest CCDC from March 14-15. This is the second time an MSU team has advanced to the regionals and the first time it will compete in an in-person competition at Purdue University in Indiana.  

About the competition  

The MWCCDC simulates real-world cybersecurity challenges. Teams must defend their systems against cyber threats while maintaining critical services. Scoring was based on several key factors: 

• Service uptime – Every minute a service remained operational earned the team six points 
• Business injects – Assignments requiring execution, business communication and technical expertise, each worth up to 100 points 
• Incident response – The team’s ability to quickly detect, mitigate and report on security breaches

Explore the ITC department