Zicklin Teams Place First and Second in Cyber Case Competition

In May, a team of Zicklin School undergraduate and graduate students placed first in the Student Cybersecurity Case Study Competition, organized by the New York metropolitan chapter of ISACA, an international professional association focused on risk governance.  A team of Zicklin School undergraduates took second place in the same contest.  

The students had to analyze a case study of a company that is considering acquiring another company that has recently suffered a cyber attack. The first-place team, known as Cyber Tiger Security, consisted of Yevgeniy Baranovskiy (BBA, ’23), Yujia Liu (BBA, ’24), and Vincent Poblete (MS ’24), as well as two students from another institution. The prize was a $2,400 scholarship.  

“Our team put in countless hours of dedicated effort to deliver an in-depth analysis that showcased our expertise, skills, and commitment to the field of cybersecurity,” said Vincent, the team lead.  Yujia added that the team’s success was achieved with “passion and collaboration.”   

Cyber Tiger Security was mentored by faculty member Gideon Pell, a distinguished lecturer in the Paul H. Chook Department of Information Systems and Statistics. “I admired how the students were able to focus on the competition while keeping up with their coursework,” he offered. “Learning to balance these projects with everything else you have to do is a real-life skill that you don’t learn in the classroom.”  

“Cybersecurity in business is all about teamwork,” added Pell. “This competition is especially valuable because it gives students the opportunity to practice working as a team, brainstorming solutions and negotiating what courses of action to recommend to management.” 

Left to right: Bukh, Chou, Ortiz-Garcia

The second-place team, known as Seems Susphishus, consisted of Emily Bukh (BBA ’23), Byron Chou (BBA, ’24), and Berenice Ortiz-Garcia (BBA, ’24). In a LinkedIn post, Emily wrote that the team was “grateful for the opportunity” to “showcas[e] our expertise in data collection, analysis, and legal scrutiny.” Second prize was a $2,200 scholarship.  

“We’ve had several second-place finishes but this is our first win in the ISACA competition,” noted Prof. Trevor Moores (Paul H. Chook Department of Information Systems and Statistics), who ran the competition for Baruch. “I was impressed by the quality of all the submissions, and especially those of Cyber Tiger and Seems Susphishus for dominating the placings. Well done to them all!”

Categories: Alumni, Current_Students, Faculty, News