Coastal Georgia Students Excel in National Cyber League Individual Competition

College of Coastal Georgia cyber defense students demonstrated strong individual cybersecurity skills in the recent National Cyber League (NCL) Individual Competition, held April 10–12, achieving impressive results across multiple performance tiers.

The Individual Game is a rigorous, solo-based competition designed to measure participants’ hands-on abilities across all nine NCL competency areas, including open-source intelligence, scanning and reconnaissance, password cracking, forensics, web application exploitation, log analysis, cryptography, network traffic analysis, and enumeration and exploitation.

Unlike team-based challenges, the Individual Game requires competitors to rely solely on their own technical knowledge, problem-solving abilities and time management skills. Students must independently solve a series of escalating challenges under competitive conditions that closely mirror real-world cybersecurity scenarios.

Coastal Georgia’s performance highlights the depth and consistency of student preparation. One CCGA student, senior Eddy Ross, who recently graduated, placed in the top 1% overall, finishing 34th out of 7,439 competitors nationwide. Ross earned a perfect score of 3,000 points, an accomplishment achieved by only 79 competitors during the weekend.

College of Coastal Georgia alum Eddy Ross was honored as the Outstanding Senior for the data science program during the College’s annual Honors Day ceremony.

In addition, three other students ranked in the top 5%, reflecting advanced mastery of core cybersecurity competencies. Junior Victoria Stanford placed 157th with 2,900 points. Senior Balber Reyez-Hernandez, who also recently graduated, placed 213rd with 2,855 points. Freshman Jonathan Wall placed 315th with 2,740 points in his second NCL Individual Game.

The success extended further, with five students finishing in the top 10% and a total of 23 students placing in the top 20% overall. These results indicate not only top-level excellence but also a broad base of strong individual performers within the College’s cybersecurity program.

Coastal Georgia’s strong showing in the NCL Individual Competition underscores the institution’s growing reputation for producing career-ready cybersecurity professionals capable of excelling independently in high-pressure technical environments.

Article submitted by Dr. Nelbert “Doc” St. Clair, Associate Professor of Cyber Defense