Teams Look For Vulnerabilities In Virtual Networks.
Cyber
defense teams from the Arizona, California, New Hampshire and North
Carolina wings of the Civil Air Patrol will compete against four
Air Force Junior ROTC teams in the Air Force Association's
CyberPatriot II Championships on Friday in Orlando, FL.
CyberPatriot II is the largest national high school cyber
defense competition ever held. It has included more than 200 high
school Air Force Junior ROTC and CAP cadet teams from 41 states and
Japan in simultaneous competition. Only eight teams from the
competition's Medalist Flight round advanced to the
all-expenses-paid championship round at the Rosen Shingle Creek
Convention Center.
Last year, only one CAP team was in the final eight compared with
seven Air Force Junior ROTC teams. This year, CAP teams made up
about one-quarter of the contestants to start, but ended the
competition as half of a 50-50 split.
The CAP Medalist Flight teams are from Beach Cities Cadet
Squadron 107 in Torrance, CA, Willie Composite Squadron 304 in
Mesa, AZ, the Seacoast Composite Squadron in Portsmouth, NH, and
the Burlington Composite Squadron in Burlington, NC Air Force
Junior ROTC teams competing in the finals are from F.W. Springstead
High School in Spring Hill, VA, Newburgh Free Academy in Newburgh,
NY, Rome Free Academy in Rome, NY, and Clearfield High School in
Clearfield, UT.
The Beach
Cities cyber defense team carries a lot of momentum into the
championship round of CyberPatriot II. It received the highest
score in the Medalist Flight competition and easily advanced to the
finals.D
uring the Medalist Flight competition, competitors had only six
hours to find and correct vulnerabilities in a virtual network made
possible by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC),
and were tracked and scored according to success and speed. In the
championship round, the cadets will compete in the most complicated
series of live challenges yet, against a "Red Team" opponent that
will actively counter their defense strategies using a commercial
platform called CyberNEXS, donated by SAIC.
"CyberPatriot II has been a tremendous success and an excellent
learning opportunity," said S. Sanford Schlitt, AFA's vice chairman
of the board for aerospace education. "As a career field, cyber
defense is essential to our nation's prosperity and national
security. One of our primary missions at AFA is promoting education
in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, and we're so
proud to spearhead this exciting educational program."