UMBC CyberDawgs
Welcome!
Welcome to the UMBC CyberDawgs homepage! We are a group of UMBC students who share a common interest in cybersecurity and good security practices in all aspects of computing.
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How To Get Involved
You can do a few things to get involved with the club.
- Join our Discord!
- Follow our myUMBC page
- Attend our weekly meetings
- Meeting location for the Fall 2025 semester TBA with a hybrid/virtual option on Webex
- Meeting time is every Monday 7:15pm - 8:15pm
- Meeting Slides and Recordings will be shared (when possible)
Meetings
We hold general club meetings every Monday from 7:15 to 8:15 PM. We encourage anyone who wants to learn more about cyber security and develop skills in the field to attend our meetings. If you’re new to cyber or computing security, no worries, you can still come. Although cybersecurity can be difficult at times, it’s nowhere near as hard as some people say, so don’t be scared away or discouraged.
No prior experience is required to attend or participate in our meetings.
What To Expect From A Meeting:
- An environment conducive to learning relevant tools and techniques
- A place to meet like-minded students and discuss all things cyber and computing security
Our meetings vary in subject material from week to week. If you want to learn more about specific topics, please email our club secretary. If you would like to present a talk or teach a new skill, please email our club president.
Club Events
Along with our normal club meetings, we also provide great opportunities for individuals interested in learning about and participating in cyber-related competitions. Here’s what we’re doing:
- We host two CTF (Capture the Flag) events at UMBC every year:
- DawgCTF Open to all UMBC students of all skill levels. Held during the Spring semester. Learn more.
- CyberPaws CTF Open to our club members; aimed at beginners. Challenges are released weekly during the Fall/Spring semester.
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We host a Cyber Defense Exercise (CDE) each Fall. CDE is a Red/Blue cyber defense exercise. It is open to all UMBC students and is a great opportunity to learn more about cyber security and cyber competitions. We strongly recommend participating so you can get a taste of the competition environment, in case you’d like to try out for the team.
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To break from the technical jargon, we hold a Cyber Movie Night once each semester during a club meeting. We offer free pizza, popcorn, and drinks. These nights are great for hanging out with fellow club members and relaxing from the stress of school.
- Finally, we host an End-of-Semester Celebration, each Spring and Fall, for all UMBC students to attend and take a break before exams. We provide pizza, drinks, and candy as well as music and games. We also announce winners of our CTFs and hand out prizes!
Cyber Competition Team
Some of our club members try out for and compete together on a collegiate cyber security competition team. We compete under the same “CyberDawgs” name.
Planned Competitions
Team History
View past competition rankings
Contact Information
Board
President: Alex Henning (ahennin1 @ umbc.edu)
Vice President: Charles Maxa (cmaxa1 @ umbc.edu)
Treasurer: Gabriela Jurado Fuentes (g189 @ umbc.edu)
Secretary: Hamza Nasher-Alneam (hnasher1 @ umbc.edu)
UMBC Liaisons
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Charles Nicholas (nicholas @ umbc.edu)
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Affiliate Professor, Department of Information Systems
Director, Graduate Computer Science Programs
Faculty Advisor: RJ Joyce (joyce8 @ umbc.edu)
Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Team Faculty Advisor: Kevin Chen (kevin.chen @ umbc.edu)
Professor, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
Thank you to our Sponsors and Supporters!
Gold Tier
(Contact Club Board if Interested!)
Silver Tier
Bronze Tier
(Contact Club Board if Interested!)
Supporters
Want to see your name here?
Check out the
Spring 2026 CyberDawgs Sponsorship Packet