Northrop Grumman Cyber Team Triumphs Again Taking First Place in Global Defense Cyber Crime Center Forensics Competition

MCLEAN, Virginia, Dec. 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Holding the number one spot in the world for the second consecutive year, a Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE: NOC) team of cyber engineers won the overall "grand champion" title in the Defense Cyber Crime Center's (DC3's) eighth annual Digital Forensics Challenge.

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The global challenge is a call to the digital forensics community to pioneer new investigative tools, techniques and methodologies to address the dynamic cyber threat. The challenge encourages innovation from a broad range of individuals, teams and institutions, and recognizes winners in various categories including military, government, commercial, civilian and academia.

In addition to earning the top spot as grand champion, the Northrop Grumman team once again took first prize in the U.S. and commercial categories. The company's team is also the only U.S. team to have taken first place in the overall competition since it was opened to international participants in 2009. This year's competition exceeded last year's submissions by 235 percent with 3,182 exercise submissions compared to 1,356 in 2012.  Overall, there were 1,254 registered teams from 49 US states and 49 countries. 

"We are very proud of our world-class team of cyber professionals who have proven the importance of rapid innovation to address the ever-changing cyber threat," said Jim Myers, vice president and general manager, cyber solutions division, Northrop Grumman Information Systems. "This competition validates the breadth and depth of talent we have at Northrop Grumman and reconfirms our continued commitment to cyber workforce development."

The 10½ month contest started in December 2012. The challenge consisted of 41 individual scenario-based exercises organized into five levels of difficulty. They ranged from basic digital forensics, or "novice-level," to "developer-level," where advanced tool development was required to solve the exercise and earn points. Teams were free to select which of the exercises to work on and submit for grading. The following is a link to DC3 challenge leaderboard: http://www.dc3.mil/challenge/2013/stats/leaderboard.php

Team members researched solutions and, in some cases, developed new techniques to solve specific problems. This year, the team focused on forensics tool development exercises, Windows system forensics, as well as encryption.

The DC3 sets standards for digital evidence processing, analysis and diagnostics for any Department of Defense (DOD) investigation that requires computer forensic support to detect enhance or recover digital media, including audio and video. The center assists in criminal, counterintelligence, counterterrorism and fraud investigations of the Defense Criminal Investigative Organizations and DOD counterintelligence activities. It also supports safety investigations and inspector general and commander-directed inquiries. For more on DC3 and the challenge, go to www.dc3.mil.

As a leading provider of cyber solutions to the federal government, Northrop Grumman is committed to building a world-class cyber workforce. Among the company's numerous cyber initiatives related to science, technology, engineering and math, the Northrop Grumman Foundation supports CyberPatriot, the national youth cyber education competition and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) CyberScholars program. The corporation supports the University of Maryland Advanced Cybersecurity Experience for Students program, leads the Cybersecurity Research Consortium, is partnered with the UMBC Research Park Corporation on the Cync incubator program, and operates its own Cyber Academy.

Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in unmanned systems, cyber, C4ISR, and logistics and modernization to government and commercial customers worldwide. Please visit www.northropgrumman.com for more information.