Hank Foss
CISO,
Fairfield University
Ethically Hacking the University: A Faculty and Staff Collaboration
Thursday, May 02, 2024 | 2:30PM–3:15PM CT | Exhibit Hall, First Floor
Session Type:
Poster Session
Delivery Format:
Poster
Ethical Hacking is one of the most useful courses taught in cybersecurity curricula. Typically, this covers topics related to penetration testing through theoretical knowledge and hands-on exercises that are usually carried out on controlled environments. We explored the feasibility of creating real life penetration tasks that are carried out on the production infrastructure of our university. This approach has its risks, but there are also many benefits both for the students and the security of the university. In this session we will give an overview of the project, outline the challenges, and present the results of the tests run by our students. We will also demonstrate an interactive session between a purple team, representing the students running the penetration tests (Censys IO, DNSdumpster.com, NetblockTool, Nmap) and a blue team, representing the IT staff responsible to identify suspicious activities (Splunk). Most of the tools used in these tests are open sourced.
