AACC Hackers Get Top Honors at Competition

Anne Arundel Community College's digital forensics team again ranked as the best community college team in an international hacking competition, and 23rd in the overall challenge.

For the second year in a row, AACC's team took top honors at The Department of Defense Cyber Crime Center's (DC3) Digital Forensics Challenge.

This year’s team, the “Mad Hatters,” included Marcelle Lee of Severna Park and Dustin Shirley of Odenton. Both take a cyberforensics class taught by Dawn Blanche, instructional specialist for AACC’s cyber program.

The team competed alongside 1,209 other teams internationally in 35 challenges that are scored based on their methods and techniques in a wide array of challenges. Teams were tested in their abilities to overcome passwords, file encryption, recovering digital evidence, and their understanding of legal authority, proper documentation and report-writing techniques.

The goal of the competition, hosted by the Department of Defense, is to cultivate new cyber professionals and pioneer new investigative tools. Cyberforensics is a fast-growing industry in Maryland. Governor Martin O’Malley has called Maryland, “the national epicenter” of cybersecurity.

AACC officials have made cybersecurity training a priority over the past few years, and they've expanded their course offerings. The college's newest location in Severn has dedicated space for training in the discipline of cyberforensics.