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cowsay

(noun)

  1. A command-line program that generates ASCII art of a cow (or other mascots) saying whatever the user inputs.
  2. The premier cybersecurity competition team at UC Davis.
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         \  (oo)\_______
            (__)\       )\/\
                ||----w |
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What Do We Do?

  • Cybersecurity competitions!
  • Defend against hackers! (Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition)
  • Hack computers! (Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition)
  • Solve puzzles! (Capture-the-Flag competitions)
  • Get our hands dirty with cybersecurity!

Requirements

There are no requirements to join the team other than being a UC Davis student and solving the entry puzzle!

Prior cybersecurity experience is not strictly necessary.

Time Commitment

We meet separately from the general meetings during the week, and hold weekend practices during the main competition season (roughly September - March).

On paper, we ask that members do at least one competition or attend a certain number of practices each quarter to remain "active," but you're free to join and leave as needed. Of course, if you're part of a main competition team, we expect more than minimum commitment.

How Do I Join?

Solve the following puzzle by decoding the link to the signup form:

dWdnY2Y6Ly9zYmV6Zi50eXIvZWVDN1JubGhsb2ltdkhVNU4= Click to copy

Feel free to ask for hints about the puzzle!

FAQ

If you have any questions, feel free to ask an officer in Discord

What is a cybersecurity competition?

Cybersecurity competitions take many different forms, but they all focus on doing practical challenges in some cybersecurity skill.

Of course, there's a whole universe of cybersecurity disciplines, so every competition demonstrates some different aspect. Some competitions involve defending against hackers, while others involve you attacking computers. Some put you into an open-ended environment where you get to choose your approach, while others involve specific challenges that force you to find the path to the solution.

We try and provide opportunities for team members to explore any cybersecurity interest. You don't have to have prior experience to participate!

Tell me more about the different cybersecurity competitions you do.

We want to allow members to participate in any competition on our behalf, but these competitions are the ones we spend the most time prepping for:

  • Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition - Play as an 8-person IT department handling customer/management requests and server maintenance while your system gets actively attacked by the red team. Learn Windows/Linux security, DevSecOps, and all the different things going into defensive cybersecurity. For more information, visit https://wrccdc.org.
  • Collegiate Penetration Testing Competition - Play as a 6-person consultant team hired to penetration test a company's systems. Find vulnerabilities and write professional reports to justify your hacking adventures. For more information, visit https://cp.tc.
  • Capture the Flag - A category of competitions focused on solving different varieties of cybersecurity challenges to retrieve a "flag." Types include: attacking web applications, attacking programs, reverse engineering programs, open-source intelligence, and cyber forensics.
How do I get started or learn more about cybersecurity?

There are a lot of resources about cybersecurity, so we can't possibly list all of them, but below are some we've compiled that might help:

  • Cybersecurity is a very broad field so this really depends on what you're interested in, but playing with Linux is always a good place to start (see Linux Journey for some basics and Over The Wire Bandit for practice).
  • Check out our "Introduction to Applied Cybersecurity" course we taught in Spring Quarter 2026: ECS 198F.
  • In the meantime, you can also try out some CTF challenges at picoGym: picoGym.
  • If you're into network security, take a look at TryHackMe which offers guided hacking lessons and labs. If you're somewhat experienced, take a crack at HackTheBox (don't be fooled by the "Easy" rating on HackTheBox machines; they are definitely not "easy" easy). Don't feel bad for asking for hints on forums or for reading writeups if you get stuck for too long.
  • Participate in CTFs with us and read writeups on challenges you couldn't figure out during the competition (this is one of the best ways to learn IMO).
  • Follow some cybersecurity professionals on social media to see what's going on in the industry.