A team from the Washington State Patrol (WSP) won this year's cyber escape room competition organized by WaTech's state Office of Cybersecurity (OCS).
"We had a lot of fun. It was also a good team-building exercise," said Brian Everson, WSP's chief information security officer. "The escape room was a fun, positive way to go through a 'work location' and find the mistakes we can all make."
The WSP team - Brian, Chris Anderson, John Fox, Brandon Garrett, Nick Angers and Sarah Winterthorn - won with a time of 14:13 and will receive a team trophy.
The OCS escape room challenges players to work as a team to find hidden clues and solve a series of puzzles within 25 minutes. The purpose of the competition is to heighten awareness about common bad practices many people fall into when it comes to securing their digital information. This year's escape room offered a different look and new puzzles to solve. More than 250 people on 51 teams, from 24 state agencies experienced the Hacktober escape room during October.
WSP escape room team, from left to right: Brandon Garrett, Nick Angers, Sarah Winterthorn, John Fox, and Brian Everson.