November 29, 2022

VINCENNES, Ind. – Vincennes University students and K-12 students from throughout the state of Indiana participated in a first-of-its-kind cyber competition hosted by VU’s College of Business and Public Service. 

The “Don’t Feed the Phish” Challenge raised cyber security awareness. Nearly 160 students from VU, North Knox Jr/Sr High School, Central Nine Career Center, J Evert Light Career Center, Indiana Digital Learning School, Carmel High School, Westville High School, Tell City High School, and Elkhart Area Career Center competed in classrooms and computer labs across the state.

Phishing is a fraudulent email designed to trick the recipient into divulging confidential information.

Student teams of two to four members crafted “catchy” phishing emails, tempting recipients to open the email. A panel of professional judges voted on the entries based on originality, convincing subject line, message content, and if the response elicited a sense of greed, urgency, curiosity, fear, or helpfulness.

According to VU Associate Professor of Information Technology Greg Hirsch, “We are very pleased with the amount of participation we had for this competition and the fact that students were able to make an impact by raising awareness about phishing emails.”

An award ceremony took place at the Red Skelton Performing Arts Center on Nov. 10. The winning high school level team was Westville’s Danny Carpenter and Ayden Schoonover. The University Level winning team was comprised of VU students Bryce Coleman, Brayden Rexing, and Mac Alexander. 

The winners won Oculus Quest II virtual reality headsets plus courses and materials by the EC-Council, a cyber security technical certification body.

The “Don’t Feed the Phish” challenge was held in conjunction with Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October.

###