NATCHITOCHES, La. — A Northwestern State University professor and three students attended DEF CON 34 in Las Vegas, bringing lessons in cybersecurity, operating systems and network analysis back to the university’s Computer Information Systems program.
Dr. Jason Powell attended the cybersecurity conference with students Seth Thurman of Homer and Brady Benoit of Pineville, along with recent graduate Justin Dysarz of Sugar Land, Texas. The group participated in talks and Capture the Flag competitions with security researchers and hobbyists from around the world.
“DEF CON is organized around dozens of specialized ‘villages,’ each built around a different corner of the security world, from the AI Village and Car Hacking Village to the Cloud Village and Hardware Hacking and Soldering Skills Village,” Powell said.
The group spent time in the OS Community, which focuses on operating system research, low-level hacking and open-source projects. Powell said the experience will help the students as they work on plans to build their own Linux distribution during the coming academic year.
“The sessions there gave the students a deeper understanding of how operating systems are built, knowledge they plan to use directly this coming academic year as they begin building their own Linux distribution,” Powell said.
The NSU group also visited the Packet Hacking Village, where participants practiced packet analysis by intercepting and decoding network traffic. The exercises demonstrated how unencrypted connections can expose passwords and other sensitive information.
“Across every village, the group came away with the same broader lesson: real strength in cybersecurity comes from understanding both software and hardware, no matter which side of a competition a person is playing,” Powell said. “The sharpest competitors were the ones comfortable moving between code and circuitry.”
Powell said the group hopes the experience will encourage other CIS students to study both application development and cybersecurity rather than viewing the subjects as separate tracks.
The group did not take photos during the conference because of DEF CON’s consent-based photography and filming rules, particularly around Capture the Flag competition areas.
“DEF CON maintains a strict, consent-based photography and filming policy that limits when attendees can be photographed, particularly around the CTF areas, so the group left with plenty of notes but no pictures,” Powell said.
With future Capture the Flag competitions and the Linux distribution project ahead, Powell said students are already discussing a return to DEF CON next year.
Information about Northwestern State University’s Computer Information Systems program is available through the university’s website.