CyberPatriot


CyberPatriot is a national youth cyber education program created in the United States to help direct students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. The program was created by the Air Force Association. It features the annual National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for high school and middle school students. It is similar to its collegiate counterpart, the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, especially at the CyberPatriot National Finals Competition.
The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition is now in its thirteenth season and is called "CyberPatriot XIII" indicating the season's competition. CyberPatriot XIII is open to all high schools, middle schools, and accredited home school programs around the country. JROTC units of all Services, Civil Air Patrol squadrons, and Naval Sea Cadet Corps divisions may also participate in the competition. Outside of the regular competition, CyberPatriot also hosts two additional sub-programs: Summer CyberCamps and an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative. The Northrop Grumman Foundation is the "presenting sponsor". A spin off program is run in the UK called Cyber Centurion.

History

CyberPatriot began in 2009 as a proof of concept demonstration at AFA's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida. Eight high school teams, from AFJROTC and Civil Air Patrol squadrons competed. The second phase of the program was limited to Air Force AFJROTC and Civil Air Patrol teams. Online training and qualification competitions were held during fall 2009 with nearly 200 teams from 44 states competing for eight slots to the first in-person National Finals Competition in February 2010, held in Orlando, Florida. The final phase of the developmental program, full national deployment, is now underway. The Open Division, which allows any school to register, was started a few seasons after the first season. Over 1,500 teams from all 50 states, Canada, and DoD Dependant schools overseas competed in CyberPatriot VI. CyberPatriot VII began in October 2014, with over 2,100 teams registered to compete. The Middle School Division, was added in CyberPatriot V. CyberPatriot IX, which started in October 2016, featured over 4,300 registered teams.

Goals and objectives

CyberPatriot, which is designed to be accessible to any high school or middle school student, provides a path from high school to college and the workforce, and benefits all CyberPatriot partners and our nation. The program increases the awareness of cybersecurity by delivering a basic cybersecurity education in a competitive format that enhances leadership, communication, and cooperation skills among its competitors.

Organization and preparation

Teams have the following members:
Each team is required to have a registered Coach and registered Competitors. Coach registration begins in the late spring to allow preparation over the summer. The qualification rounds of the competition are completed online at the teams’ home locations from September to early January.

Competition guidelines

The competition is a tournament structure with three divisions:
  1. Open High School Division: Open to all public, private, parochial, magnet, charter, home schools, and special groups such as CampFire, Boys & Girls Club, Boy Scouts, Church Youth Groups, Girl Scouts, etc.
  2. All-Service Division: Open to all JROTC Services, Civil Air Patrol squadrons, US Naval Sea Cadet Corps units. The registration fee is waived for teams competing in the All-Service Division
  3. Middle School Division: Open to all middle schools and junior high schools which follow the same common organizations as mentioned above in the Open High School Division.
The early rounds of the competition are done online during weekends via the Internet from teams’ schools or other sponsoring organizations’ facilities. Prior to the round, teams download virtual image representations of operating systems with known flaws, or cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Each team is tasked to find the flaws while keeping specified computer functions working. Team progress is recorded by a central CyberPatriot scoring system.
The scores from Qualification Rounds 1 and 2 are totaled to determine which tier a team advances to:
In CyberPatriot XIII, there are only 3 rounds total and round 1 will be held later than in CyberPatriot XII due to COVID-19 in order to give coaches more time to recruit, Round 3 determining the National Finalists teams.
Teams in the Platinum tier are the only teams eligible to qualify for National Finals.
See additional rules below:
The top scoring Semifinal teams from each division, approximately 28 teams, are invited to the in-person National Finals Competition each spring. For CyberPatriot IV - VII, National Finals Competitions was held at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland in March. From the CyberPatriot VIII season through the CyberPatriot XI season, the National Finals Competitions moved to the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland and was held in April of each year. Beginning in the CyberPatriot XII season, the National Finals Competition is planned to be held at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center in Bethesda, Maryland outside of Washington, D.C. in March. However, the CyberPatriot XII In-Person National Finals Competition, which was the first planned year at the Bethesda North Marriott, was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak and a virtual, in-home competition was held online in May, about two months after the originally scheduled in-person competition event. The CP-XII Virtual National Finals was held on May 2nd, 2020, and marked the first-ever online virtual CyberPatriot National Finals Competition.
The Challenges that teams may face include:
  1. Network Security Master Challenge, in which teams fix vulnerabilities in "images" of Operating Systems that have been purposely tampered with while protecting the "images" from "Red Team" which is a group of "hackers" that will exploit vulnerabilities on the competitor's machines.
  2. Leidos Digital Forensics Challenge, in which teams solve mysteries with computer programs.
  3. Digital Crime Scene Challenge, in which teams search a live "crime scene" for digital evidence.
  4. Cisco Networking Challenge, in which teams show their knowledge about Wiring, Cisco's Packet Tracer, and in a Cisco quiz.
Winning teams in the Open and All Service Division earn education grants to the school of their choice. First place teams earn $2,000 per competitor, second place teams earn $1,500 per competitor, and third place earns $1,000 per competitor. The scholarship money is provided by Northrop Grumman Corp. In CyberPatriot VII, for first, second, and third place, an additional $2,000, $1,500, and $1,000 were awarded to the teams, respectively, by the National Security Agency.

CyberPatriot Winners

YearSeasonTeam NameSchool/OrganizationCity
2009CyberPatriot IOsceola High School AFJROTCOsceola High SchoolKissimmee, FL
2010CyberPatriot IIClearfield High School Air Force JROTCClearfield High SchoolClearfield, UT
2011CyberPatriot IIIColorado Springs Cadet SquadronN/AColorado Springs, CO
2012CyberPatriot IVWolfpackColorado Springs Cadet SquadronColorado Springs, CO
2013CyberPatriot VMarine Military AcademyMarine Military AcademyHarlingen, TX
2014CyberPatriot VIOsceola High School AFJROTCOsceola High SchoolKissimmee, FL
2015CyberPatriot VIIFearsome FalconsClearfield High SchoolClearfield, UT
2016CyberPatriot VIIINetrunnersCenturion BattalionWinter Park, FL
2017CyberPatriot IXWolfpackColorado Springs Cadet SquadronColorado Springs, CO
2018CyberPatriot XCyber Warriors 0Troy High SchoolFullerton, CA
2019CyberPatriot XICyberD3ltaTroy High School Navy JROTCFullerton, CA

YearSeasonTeam NameSchool/OrganizationCity
2009CyberPatriot IN/AN/AN/A
2010CyberPatriot IIN/AN/AN/A
2011CyberPatriot IIIRed Bank Regional High SchoolRed Bank Regional High SchoolLittle Silver, NJ
2012CyberPatriot IVAlamo AcademiesAlamo AcademiesSan Antonio, TX
2013CyberPatriot VChantilly AcademyChantilly AcademyChantilly, VA
2014CyberPatriot VIAzureNorth Hollywood High SchoolNorth Hollywood, CA
2015CyberPatriot VIICyberSlothsGrissom High SchoolHuntsville, AL
2016CyberPatriot VIIISudoSummit Technology AcademyLee's Summit, MO
2017CyberPatriot IXTogoNorth Hollywood High SchoolNorth Hollywood, CA
2018CyberPatriot XTogoNorth Hollywood High SchoolNorth Hollywood, CA
2019CyberPatriot XITroy Tech SupportTroy High SchoolFullerton, CA

YearSeasonTeam NameSchool/OrganizationCity
2009CyberPatriot IN/AN/AN/A
2010CyberPatriot IIN/AN/AN/A
2011CyberPatriot IIIN/AN/AN/A
2012CyberPatriot IVN/AN/AN/A
2013CyberPatriot VN/AN/AN/A
2014CyberPatriot VICyber KnightsBeach Cities Cadet SquadronSan Pedro, CA
2015CyberPatriot VIITeam 1Nysmith School for the GiftedHerndon, VA
2016CyberPatriot VIIICyberFalcon Millennium 360Oak Valley Middle SchoolSan Diego, CA
2017CyberPatriot IXError 37Summit Lakes Middle SchoolLees Summit, MO
2018CyberPatriot XCyberAegis Cancer MinorOak Valley Middle SchoolSan Diego, CA
2019CyberPatriot XICyberAegis ChaosOak Valley Middle SchoolSan Diego, CA

External Links From 2013

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