A team of computer science students at Florida Polytechnic University is completing a cybersecurity-focused senior capstone project to help Everglades Financial find and fix digital weaknesses in its systems. From left, team members are Ilya Tsoy, Gabriel Lopez, Hannah Friday, Jacob Zukas, Deven Seerattan and Dallas DeSimone. Not pictured is Piash Islam.
A senior capstone team at Florida Polytechnic University has worked tirelessly to find and exploit weak spots in a finance company’s systems. They attacked, crept around, and broke into any vulnerabilities they found.
The students then buckled down to devise solutions so that no one else could do the same.
The seven-member team of computer science majors with concentrations in information assurance and cybersecurity began its simulated cyberattack, or penetration testing, in January. By next week, Everglades Financial – the company under attack – will have a complete report of its cybersecurity challenges as well as recommendations on how to fix them.
“This is exciting because this capstone project is different from all the other teams’ projects,” said Ilya Tsoy, from Aventura, Florida. “We’re not creating software; our goal is to break into the system.”
Their hard work could prevent a cybercriminal from stealing sensitive information, defacing digital property, or even bringing down the company’s entire system. Everglades Financial is a Lakeland, Florida,-based financial services company.
In addition to its penetration testing for system vulnerabilities, the attack-focused cybersecurity team also conducted a phishing test to find potential human-centered weaknesses. By impersonating someone or otherwise trying to trick an employee, the students worked to gain information that should not have been shared by someone within the company.
Lastly, they ran a physical penetration test.
“This is more of like a robber situation where we physically go to the building and try to break in and plant flash drives to see if employees will plug that into their computer so we can gain access,” said team leader Jacob Zukas, from West Palm Beach, Florida.
The students will present their findings during Florida Poly’s annual capstone showcase on Wednesday, April 23.
Tsoy said this project is especially satisfying because it will have a real impact on Everglades Financial, which can now put the teams’ cybersecurity recommendations into action.
“They are a company handling important finances, and we can make sure they are secure and that all their customer information and finances are safe,” he said
In addition to satisfying their client, another benefit of the successful capstone project is the good it can do for the students’ budding careers.
“Now we can fill our resumes with the industry tools that we know how to use and projects like this that show we really know what we’re doing,” Zukas said.
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