About The Event
PCDC 2025 was held on April 12-14, 2025. Ten teams will be invited to compete on each day of the event with high schools competing on Saturday, colleges on Sunday, and the pros on Monday. CyberPatriot was used as the high school qualifier and the Southeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition for the collegiate qualifier. We once again hosted "Cyber in the Middle" (CITM) and also the Southeast Region Collegiate HackWarz on Saturday April 12.
Click Here to see a slide show of the event!
2025 Scenario:
Welcome to Palmetto Crossing, a quaint town who prides itself on its “by citizens, for citizens” approach to utility offerings. Feeling financial pressure, Mayor Scott Bell instituted an early retirement program that resulted in the loss of all senior information system professionals and a crippling knowledge gap on system operations. With this information being public knowledge, the water, power, sewage, and internet offerings have become targets for various malicious actors who seek to leverage data breeches, ransomware, and control of utilities for financial and political gain. To combat this, the city Chief Information Officer (I can’t remember the name that’s always used) has begun hiring new teams to regain control of these systems in efforts to ensure the cities utilities become protected and reliable once again. Join the Palmetto Crossing Department of Commerce team today and make public utilities great again!
The High School Teams that competed in 2025 are: AAST, Academic Magnet, Aiken Scholars Academy, Ashley Ridge, Cane Bay, Clover, CTE Innovation Center, Homeschool STEM, and Military Magnet
Collegiate Teams that competed: Citadel, Clemson, CofC, CSU, ECPI, HGTC, Naval Academy, TTC, UNCW, and USC
The Professional Teams that competed are: BAE, Dominion Energy, Navy Reserve Cyber East, SC National Guard, US Cyber Team, US Women's Cyber Team, and SRC
The Teams that competed in HackWarz: JohnPwnJones, H0pp3rsR0pp3rs, ForkBomb, USC Cyber, CitCyber, The Hack that Smiles Back, HGTC Team 1, HGTC Team 2, DeepStatt, and Voorhees CyberCatz
Overview
Promoting cyber security education and awareness
PCDC is an event for the promotion of Cyber Security education and awareness. Competition energizes local high schools and colleges to develop invigorating and focused curriculum for the technical needed in today’s fast-paced and challenging cyber environment. A brochure for the event is posted in the Documents Section
Competition is an all-day event followed by awards presentations and a networking opportunity where representatives will be available to discuss employment possibilites. Each day brings a new set of competitors to the field allowing South Carolina high schools, regional colleges, and cyber security professionals to go head-to-head. The schedule is posted in the Documents Section
Each 6-member team must work together as a real company would to defend their network from red team attacks while maintaining crucial business services and responding to customer and administrative demands. Winners are the most successful at thwarting the effects of hackers while keeping their businesses online and functioning.
2025 Winners
Congratulations to these winning teams!
High School
- Home School STEM
- Academic Magnet
- Clover
College
- The Citadel
- Clemson
- University of South Carolina
Pro
- NAVWAR Cyber Pillar Reservists
Southeast Regional Collegiate HackWarz Champion
- University of South Carolina
- The Citadel
- United States Naval Academy
Event Venue
PCDC 2025 was held on 12-14 April 2025 at Trident Technical College in North Charleston in building 920. A map to the venue is posted in the Documents Section. You can download/view the map directly by Clicking Here.
THANK YOU to our 2025 sponsors!!!
The competition, awards, scholarships and prizes are made possible through the generous support of many industry and institutional sponsors and over 100 volunteers, as well as many cyber security industry supporters & volunteers both in South Carolina & throughout the United States. The AFCEA SC Low Country Chapter wishes to recognize the generosity and continuing support of our many Corporate Sponsors who make the Palmetto Cyber Defense Competition possible.
