TexSAW 2022

11th Texas Security Awareness Week

Friday and Saturday, April 22nd-23rd, 2022

Organized by

UT Dallas Erik Jonsson School of Engineerging and Computer Science logo


We are excited to offer our 11th Texas Security Awareness Week (TexSAW 2022) event.

We concluded this year’s event!

Click here for the photo album.

Winners of this year’s competition:

1st place:  Roman Hauksson-Neill and Jay Challangi, UT Dallas
2nd place:  Brandon Wang, UT Dallas
3rd place:  William Chang and Chia-Hao Yang, UT Dallas

This year’s event will again target students who are interested in pursuing computer security. Students will be exposed to security concepts which will expand their knowledge of cyber security and broaden their career opportunities.

Students will have the opportunity to:

  • Meet students interested in cyber security from UT Dallas as well as other universities and colleges in Texas.
  • Hear a guest presentation by a UT Dallas alumnus and leading cyber security expert from Sandia National Labs.
  • Attend workshops on Friday, April 22nd, to develop fundamental hands-on skills in the cyber security topics of web security, reverse engineering and system security, and digital forensics.
  • Put newly-learned skills to use in a cyber security competition on Saturday, April 23rd. Graduate students are welcome to compete in the competition but they will not qualify for prizes.

A registration fee of $10 is required which will be refunded upon confirmation of attendance at the two day event.


Accommodation grants (a limited number based on double occupancy) are available for students coming from outside the DFW Metroplex area.

Applicants must have a current GPA of at least 2.7 and be enrolled in a computer science, MIS, IT, or other related program. Please apply with a copy of your current unofficial transcript and a personal statement on the expected benefits of attending these events by filling this form by April 6th. Please include your gender as well as any specific roommate request.


Program Schedule for TexSAW 2022

Hardware/Software Requirements

We have prepared a Kali Linux VM that includes all the software tools that you will need to participate in the workshops and in the competition. Please download this VM image from here and install it on your laptop using a hypervisor (e.g., VirtualBox or VMware hypervisor).

Below are the instructions to importing the OVA File into VirtualBox:

  1. Download and install VirtualBox if you don’t have it already.
  2. Open VirtualBox and select File > Import Appliance…
  3. Now, select your OVA file in the import box and verify the settings in the center window.
  4. Ensure the MAC Address Policy is Include only NAT network adapter MAC addresses.
  5. Click Import at the bottom.
  6. Allow VirtualBox to import the file and then configure it for use.
    1. If you have black screen issues after powering on the VM, you may need to dedicate more video memory in Settings > Display > Screen > Video Memory
    2. If you are still having black screen issues after powering on the VM, you may need to change the version to 64-bit in Settings > General > Basic > Version > Other/Unknown (64-bit).

Please download AND import the OVA file before coming to the event. It is a large file and takes a long time to download and import.

Schedule on April 22, 2022

8:30am – 9:00amBreakfast
9:00am – 10:30amSystem Security and Reverse Engineering Workshop
Alexander Armstrong, Payton Harmon, Elliot Tarbet, and Corey Wingo
10:30am – 10:45amBreak
10:45am – 12:15pmDigital Forensics Workshop
Tahlla Taylor, James Wrabel, and Mason Orsak
12:15pm – 1:00pmLunch
1:00pm – 2:00pmGuest Speaker
Kevin Hulin, Sandia National Laboratories
2:00pm – 3:30pmWeb Security Workshop
Charles Averill, Harrison Hamrick, Tri Nguyen, and Benjamin Stark

Schedule on April 23, 2022

9:00am – 9:30amBreakfast
9:30am – 12:30pmCTF competition
12:30pm – 1:15pmLunch
1:15pm – 2:00pmPresentation of Solutions
2:00pm – 2:30pmAward ceremony and student feedback

For more information, please email Rhonda Walls.

Venue

Located in the center of one of the most dynamic economic and demographic regions of the nation, The University of Texas at Dallas, is a young, dynamic research institution on the cutting edge of science, technology, medicine, business and the arts. Born at the dawn of the information age, UT Dallas helped pioneer new fields in science and technology and created sought-after degree programs that did not exist a generation ago. In recent years, the University’s teaching mission has expanded, its external research funding has nearly doubled, its program offerings have grown and its reputation has gained notice nationally. The student body has also grown, even as quantitative markers of excellence – average entering SAT scores, graduation rates, numbers of distinguished scholarship holders and national merit scholarship winners – have moved up.

Student workshops and competition will take place in the TI Auditorium located in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science (ECSS).

Directions to the campus

Learn more about Richardson, Texas