Introducing Student LogWars — A LogRhythm EDU Partnership Program

In the cybersecurity industry, one of the biggest problems facing recent graduates and employers is the lack of real-world experience from education. To address these challenges, LogRhythm is excited to announce a new facet of our EDU Partnership Program, Student LogWars! This program is designed to enable educators at different levels to include real-world cybersecurity tools and data in their instruction.

How Student LogWars Works

The LogWars Capture the Flag (CTF) competition works by granting participants access to a simulated LogRhythm SIEM environment with real log data. The participants hunt down answers to questions that get progressively more difficult. The questions range from simple user interface mechanics and data to advanced threat hunting scenarios. Participants earn points for answering questions correctly, and lose points whenever they ask for hints. Teams of participants compete head-to-head in real time to achieve the highest overall team score.

Our Pilot Event Was a Success! Here’s a Recap

LogRhythm sponsored a pilot event for Student LogWars with four Colorado colleges on Friday, June 4th. The game was made up of local schools, instructor team advocates, and student participants. About a month before the event, students were given some study preparation documentation.

Here’s what the schedule for the pilot event looked like: introductions, guest speakers, registrations, product video tutorials, competition, and conclusion. The event ran about 2.5 hours from start to finish. Our guest speakers also brought the experience to life. They were able to show the students the spectrum of careers in cybersecurity and related that back to what we were doing in the competition. LogRhythm also provided participation and winner prizes. It was a fun and engaging way to spend a Friday evening!

We’re pleased to say that the teams did very well! It was a highly competitive event with each team scoring high positive marks, which isn’t always the case. Participants can actually earn a negative score, but that didn’t happen. The 18 participants who competed in the event represented The University of Colorado at Denver, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Red Rocks Community College, and the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

The event provided students with a hands-on, portfolio-building experience. It was really touching as I got to know several students facing the same challenges I did a few years back. They also were asking questions, such as:

  • “What is it like in the field and what jobs are out there?”
  • “Will I use what I’ve learned?”
  • “Can I actually do this?”

We were able to help them answer these questions and more at Student LogWars. It was a great learning experience, and as an employer, I certainly witnessed that these students are capable of entering the cybersecurity field with how well they did.

Those of us who participated at LogRhythm also learned a lot from the event and we are extremely grateful to be a part of this educational program.

How to Get Involved with Student LogWars

We hope that this pilot event is the herald for many future Student LogWars to come. If you are interested in getting your students some real-world, resume-building product experience, please feel free to reach out to [email protected]. We will get it coordinated from there!