It felt not just like a win for us, but also for all of the women in cyber. Being a woman in a male-dominated field, there’s always someone telling you, you have something to prove. There’s always a bit of imposter syndrome.
Four BSU seniors cracked the code to an historic win in a recent state cybersecurity competition, becoming the event’s first all-female team to claim the title.
For Raven Telepak, ’26, and her BSU teammates, the victory was much more than a personal achievement. She saw it as a step toward gender parity in her profession.
“It felt not just like a win for us, but also for all of the women in cyber,” Raven said. “Being a woman in a male-dominated field, there’s always someone telling you, you have something to prove. There’s always a bit of imposter syndrome.”
Raven and fellow seniors Aaliyah Oliveira, Emily Reilly, and Shreya Patel, who are entering a field in which fewer than 25 percent of employees are women, proved themselves capable of responding to cyberattacks by besting more than a dozen teams from colleges and universities across the state. The competition challenged students to comb through a mock company’s digital infrastructure to find traces of an attacker. Then, they presented an executive briefing about the attack, making sure to explain complex concepts in ways that a non-technical audience could understand.
The nonprofit CyberTrust Massachusetts, which collaborates with BSU on cybersecurity education, has hosted these realistic simulations (called Capture the Flag events) regularly since 2023. A different group of Bridgewater students won last year. Both Bears teams relied on skills honed at BSU.
“There was a lot of overlap with what we are learning,” Aaliyah said. “It was taking those concepts we have learned through BSU cybersecurity and being able to apply that knowledge to a system or program that we haven’t used.”
Aaliyah and her teammates, who are among the first to earn bachelor’s degrees in cybersecurity and digital forensics from BSU, took many classes together and developed a tight bond that helped them in the competition.
“This shows, especially with us being the first batch of graduates, that they have built a very strong program,” Emily said.
The women credit their professors for preparing them with the ideal blend of technical skills in cybersecurity and soft skills, such as public speaking. This balance served them well in the competition and will be beneficial throughout their careers.
“We not only have the security background, but the professional skills as well,” Shreya said, adding, “We all feel ready.”
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