How do I join SIGPwny?

Don’t worry - you already have! SIGPwny is completely free and requires no registration. To get the full experience, we reccommend joining our Discord and then authenticating your account to gain access to club channels.

You can read more about opportunities to get involved below.

When does SIGPwny meet?

We publish our full meeting schedule on our Meetings page.

How do I get involved in SIGPwny?

SIGPwny does a lot of different things, and there are plenty of ways to get involved!

Throughout the school year, SIGPwny runs educational cybersecurity meetings on a variety of topics, and then plays CTFs together as a club against other universities. Alongside each meeting, we run our own CTF throughout the semester, Pwny CTF, with prizes for top players.

SIGPwny also runs two major events:

  • UIUCTF, a high-profile CTF event every summer
  • Fall CTF, aimed at UIUC students new to cybersecurity

During the spring semester, we participate or attend larger events that rotate depending on the club’s interest. In 2023, we attended CypherCon, and eCTF.

What does club leadership look like at UIUC?

Admins

SIGPwny admin team is similar to executive board members in other clubs. The admins are responsible for organizing events, handling logistics, managing club finances, and ultimately, keeping SIGPwny running. Unlike leadership positions in other clubs, the admin team is very dynamic and fluid, with more members than a typical top-four council and no explicitly defined roles. Becoming an admin is an invite-only process and requires an extraordinary amount of dedication and trust from the existing admin team - only the most active helpers can become admins.

Current Admin Team

Helpers

SIGPwny helpers are similar to committee officers in other clubs. We have chosen to use the term “helper” to emphasize that anyone can call for help with their cybersecurity journey, whether that be developing your technical skills, getting leadership experience, receiving career advice, and more. Helpers are responsible for improving the club experience, whether that be running meetings, leading projects, or assisting admins with current goals.

Current Helper Team

What do Helpers do?

Helpers have a set of responsibilities that are distinct from those of typical members. They are expected to attend most meetings and be an actively engaged member of at least one subteam throughout the semester. Helpers can also be subteam leads, depending on their interests. The subteams include:

  • Content: Creating and managing meeting content or developing challenges for Pwny CTF, Fall CTF, and UIUCTF!
  • Social: Making sure SIGPwny stays fun with social and CTF events!
  • Branding: Advertising and helping make SIGPwny look amazing! (posters, merch, etc.)
  • Outreach: Developing connections with other companies and RSOs!
  • Infrastructure: Maintaining our website, CTF servers, Discord bot, server rack, and more!

You don’t need to be a cybersecurity expert to be a helper!

What do I need to do to become a Helper?

SIGPwny looks for the following characteristics in a Helper:

  • You are a UIUC student
  • You frequently attend meetings and are actively engaged with the meeting content
  • You interact with other club members
  • You are looking to give back to the club
  • You have a learning/teaching-focused mindset
  • You demonstrate an interest in improving the club. This can be shown in various ways, such as contributing to ongoing projects, sharing your cybersecurity knowledge by running a meeting / participating in CTFs, or expressing interest in {design, branding, outreach, and marketing}.

The simplest way to show your interest is to ask an existing helper to help run a meeting!