DSU ranks #10 in NSA Codebreaker Challenge
March 27, 2025
The NSA Codebreaker Challenge is like a puzzle, said Brayden Borges. Like most complicated puzzles, “You get a real sense of achievement when you finish it,” he said.
The DSU junior solved all nine sequential challenges over the four months of the competition. This accomplishment means he joins the ranks of several other Dakota State students and alumni who have finished the challenge, including DSU alumnus Shane Donahue. Donahue and Borges are both from California, and Donahue mentored Borges in high school at Rancho Cordova.
When Borges began looking at colleges, he was looking for an online program. He chose Dakota State because it had online options, and he knew so many other students at DSU.
The cyber operations major is taking classes on campus this academic year, and participates in competitions like Codebreaker, Cyber Patriot, Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC), and multiple Capture the Flag events. He estimates he’s done around 100-200 competitions over the last two years.
“Sometimes I do four in a weekend,” Borges stated, but “you have to learn to pace yourself, which is difficult because you don’t know what will come up in your schedule.” Last year he procrastinated a little too much with the Codebreaker Challenge and only completed eight of the nine steps. ‘This year I pushed myself.”
What he likes about the Codebreaker is that it’s high-quality and built on a good story. Last year’s challenge was centered around a simulation of current events with the Chinese balloon incident.
The goal of this year’s competition was to discover and stop advanced persistent threats from nation-states that are targeting defense industry contractors. The series of problems showcase the technical problems and analysis performed daily at the National Security Agency, and implement reverse engineering, vulnerability research & exploitation, cryptoanalysis, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, forensics, and programming.
“Cybersecurity is critical for keeping our nation safe, and the number of opportunities available for skilled professionals … are rapidly growing,” said General Tim Haugh, Commander, USCYBERCOM and Director NSA/Chief CSS, in the video invitation to the competition. He added that Codebreaker is one of many student programs and career opportunities that NSA has to offer.
The competition, which began in 2013, now has over 7,000 participants that take part nationwide at 574 U.S.-based academic institutions. Borges was one of 229 Dakota State students competing, and the university ranked 10th on the leaderboard.
Borges recommends students and faculty participate in the upcoming 2025 competition, which will begin in September.
“It’s fun, challenging, and is a good experience to see how things actually are in the real world.”