SPARSA
Encyclopedia
Rochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
student-run organization that addresses security-related issues and how these issues affect multiple majors and disciplines. The ultimate goal of this organization is to provide students with experience in information security and job opportunities in information security (infosec) related fields. This includes aiding members in the search for both cooperative education
Cooperative education
Cooperative education is a structured method of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. A cooperative education experience, commonly known as a "co-op", provides academic credit for structured job experience...
(co-op) and full-time employment opportunities.
To meet this goal, SPARSA hosts and participates in research and development of security tools and policies. In addition, SPARSA provides consulting for organizations in need of improved security. SPARSA also seeks to build and maintain relationships with local and national security related organizations. This includes social networking with security professionals and hosting conferences, symposia, and other security-related events to spur growth in this area.
As security becomes progressively more important in our increasingly global world, SPARSA will help students remain on top of their game and up to date with the latest security issues, practices, and research. "Today individuals, families, organizations, communities and our nation face unprecedented combinations of cyber and physical security threats to both cyber and physical assets. The challenge is to enhance security capabilities at all levels of society by developing better security technologies, and by providing education and training in the use and management of security technologies" (Dr. Samuel McQuade)
History
SPARSA was founded in the wake of 9/11 by RITRochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
students Jared Campbell, Eric Linden and Matt Hile. The initial faculty advisor was Dr. Samuel McQuade - Program Chair of The Center for Multidisciplinary Studies, with additional coordination from Kimberley Laris - Director
Management
Management in all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively...
of Business Process & Audit
Audit
The general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...
, and Jim Moore - Information Security Officer.
Future growth
SPARSA recently wrote and published an article on information security in a security journal. The future vision of SPARSA is to expand our research capability through both technical and non-technical publications.Chapters
SPARSA is in talks with one or more institutions about the possibility of creating additional SPARSA Chapters at other Universities and Colleges in the United States.Events
SPARSA hosts and co-hosts a wide variety of events that involve computer security. In the past, this has included the Information Security Talent Search (ISTS) and the McAfeeMcAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
Security Competition.
ISTS
To help achieve SPARSAs goals, SPARSA hosts an annual computer security competition called the Information Security Talent Search (ISTS). ISTS challenges teams to diagnose security vulnerabilities on an administrated network. The competition offers students the opportunity to set up and secure their own network services from intrusion, network with fellow security-minded students and professionals in the field, as well as attack other teams network services ISTS.History
- ISTS1 took place on May 9, 2003. ISTS1 was sponsored by Crowe Chizekhttp://www.crowechizek.com.
- ISTS2 took place on Oct 18, 2003. ISTS2 was sponsored by Crowe Chizekhttp://www.crowechizek.com.
- ISTS3 took place on Jan 8, 2005. ISTS3 was sponsored by the ITInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
Department and by GCCISGCCISThe B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences is the newest and second largest college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. As of fall quarter, 2011, it includes 18% of RIT's enrollment...
at RITRochester Institute of TechnologyThe Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
. - ISTS4 took place on January 28, 2006. ISTS4 was sponsored by SunnKing Electronics Recyclers, SMP, VarData, and the Network, Security and Systems Administration Department, the Information TechnologyInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
Department, Computer ScienceComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
Department and GCCISGCCISThe B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences is the newest and second largest college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. As of fall quarter, 2011, it includes 18% of RIT's enrollment...
at RITRochester Institute of TechnologyThe Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
. - ISTS5 took place on March 24, 2007. ISTS5 was sponsored by Crowe Chizekhttp://www.crowechizek.com , Information TechnologyInformation technologyInformation technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
Department, NVidiaNVIDIANvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
http://www.nvidia.com, and ThermalTakeThermaltakeThermaltake is a manufacturer of PC cases, power supplies and cooling solutions. Its main headquarters is located in Taipei and Thermaltake has multiple manufacturing facilities on mainland China, including a major plant at Dongguan which is also ISO-9001 certified.Most of Thermaltake's production...
http://www.thermaltake.com. - ISTS6 took place March 28-29, 2008 with Jolt ColaJolt ColaJolt Cola was a carbonated soft drink produced by Wet Planet Beverages. It was created in 1985 by C. J. Rapp as a highly caffeinated cola. It is targeted towards students and young professionals, stressing its use as a stimulant in a similar manner as energy drinks...
, Ebaums World, Crowe Chizekhttp://www.crowechizek.com, RIT IT Department, RIT CS Department, NSSA department, and GCCISGCCISThe B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences is the newest and second largest college at the Rochester Institute of Technology. As of fall quarter, 2011, it includes 18% of RIT's enrollment...
as the sponsors and took place at RITRochester Institute of TechnologyThe Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
. - ISTS7 took place March 19-21, 2010 and took place at RITRochester Institute of TechnologyThe Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
. - ISTS8 took place April 1-3, 2011 with ShmooConShmooConShmooCon is an American hacker convention organized by The Shmoo Group. There are typically about 35 different talks and presentations, on a variety of subjects related to computer security and cyberculture.-History:...
, Perimeter E-Security, Arnold Magnetics, RIT CS Department, RIT NSSA Department, Wegmans, No Starch PressNo Starch PressNo Starch Press is a publishing company specializing in computer books for the technically savvy, or "geek entertainment" as they term it. They have published such titles as Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, Silence on the Wire, Steal This Computer Book 4.0, Steal This File Sharing Book, Write...
, and Syngress as the sponsors and took place at RITRochester Institute of TechnologyThe Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
.
McAfee Computer Security Contest
In spring 2005, McAfeeMcAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
approached SPARSA to host a Computer Security Contest ("Secure and Defend Your Digital Fortress"/"Secure Computing Contest"). This contest came following a generous donation of McAfee
McAfee
McAfee, Inc. is a computer security company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, USA. It markets software and services to home users, businesses and the public sector. On August 19, 2010, electronics company Intel agreed to purchase McAfee for $7.68 billion...
products to RIT
Rochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
. The competition took place on May 13, 2005. McAfee sent 5 employees to take part in the attack portion of this contest. Students signed up in teams and attempted to build a secure network infrastructure. Teams used McAffe IntruSheild IDS/IPS (NIDS) devices, McAfee Entercept (HIDS), McAfee AV, Cisco
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
29XX switches, and Cisco 29XX routers. An Extreme Network Alpine multi-layered switch powered the network core. Each team was given 3 networks they were responsible for maintaining connections to. This ultimately proved to be too difficult for teams, and the network was flattened into a single network. For OS's, teams ran Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
2000 Server, Debian
Debian
Debian is a computer operating system composed of software packages released as free and open source software primarily under the GNU General Public License along with other free software licenses. Debian GNU/Linux, which includes the GNU OS tools and Linux kernel, is a popular and influential...
/KNOPPIX
Knoppix
Knoppix, or KNOPPIX , is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD / DVD or a USB key , one of the first of its kind for any operating system. Knoppix was developed by Linux consultant Klaus Knopper. When starting a program, it is loaded from the removable medium...
Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
and FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
. The winning team placed a great deal of faith on FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
and it paid off. McAfee used a software product known as Core Impact to penetrate and autoroot team boxes. While this tool worked reasonably well, it also crashed the network by confusing the multi-layer Extreme switch. The SPARSA attack team was less fortunate, and used WHoppiX (now WHAX) and BSD variants with such tools as nmap, netcat, nessus, and the metasploit framework.
Members
The Executive Board ("E-Board") is SPARSA's leadership. Members can be nominated to these positions as the SPARSA constitution allows. Nominations normally take place during the Spring quarter at RITRochester Institute of Technology
The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...
.
Careers
As SPARSA is a relatively young organization, its network of alumni is fairly small and is growing constantly. As of July 2006, SPARSA alumni members work for a multitude of organizations ranging from MicrosoftMicrosoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
, Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin
Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....
, Crowe Chizek, and Merck
Merck & Co.
Merck & Co., Inc. , also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme or MSD outside the United States and Canada, is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. The Merck headquarters is located in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, an unincorporated area in Readington Township...
, to various entities of the U.S. Government.
With the growth of SPARSA's alumni network, locating jobs for new and younger members will be easier. Some alum members work in incredibly unique and ever evolving fields that deal with information security as well as national security. These relationships can provide incredible opportunities for new members to evolve into information security professionals.