|
For Immediate Release
November 24, 2009
Newburgh Free Academy Cyber Defenders Going to National Championship
William Martin,
NY-095 Newburgh Free Academy,
It's early Saturday morning, and a group of competitors begin to arrive at Newburgh Free Academy. Game time is two hours away, but the competition won't take place on an athletic field. Instead, these athletes will battle it out across many time zones in cyberspace. This is the CyberPatriot II semi-finals, a global cyber defense competition that puts high school students into the role of system & network administrator. The students, cadets in the Air Force Junior ROTC program here, are faced with three systems running the Windows and Linux operating systems. They have six hours to find and fix dozens of problems that have been placed into their systems. The NFA team won their semi-final berth with a top 21 finish in round 1, getting to skip round 2 and advance directly to today's semi-finals. From here the top eight teams go to the finals in Orlando where they'll face more systems and even tougher challenges, including a team actively attacking their network.
The CyberPatriot program was conceived by the Air Force Association (AFA), a civilian non-profit foundation started in 1946 to promote public education and understanding of aerospace and its role in national defense. The competition was seen as a way to encourage students to pursue higher education and careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
CyberPatriot I was a small scale proof-of-concept at AFA's Feb. 2009 conference. The project was then scaled up to support the teams that would eventually register and compete during this school year. The first round took place two weeks ago, and included more than 100 teams from the United States and Japan.
It's now 10:00 a.m., and the game has started. But the look on team leader Xiara Alvarez's face says it's a game to be taken seriously. She's in this to win, and realizes what anyone who saw 60 Minutes last week knows:
This is deadly serious business for a nation so heavily dependent on technology. To her left sit Justin Sanabria and Shenny Molina, the deputy group commander. They're intently focused on applying a security patch on their machine's server software, even though they were relaxed and smiling before the competition began. On the right side of the room are Zuri Beadle and Danny Kavana, cadets who weeks ago had never heard of the Linux operating system. While their screen might look familiar had they grown up 25 years earlier, they today contend with a lack of mouse and icons and delve into a world of commands and text displays.
The students monitor their progress on a Web site showing a time delayed count of problems found and fixed. Justin and Shenny quickly get several important patches installed, and are making progress. A little later Xiara has been able to erase more than 40% of the problems on her system.
Zuri and Danny are frustrated by the arcane text based way that Linux works, but encouraged as they see determination pay off on their progress display. It's only 11:30, but these cyber defenders have made real progress. They work through lunch in this non-stop competition, finally pausing to bring food to their work area a little after 1:00.
Around 2:30 the ROTC unit commander, USAF Col. Ed Seward is speaking with the team's coach, CAP 2nd Lt. Bill Martin when they both hear a yell. It's Xiara Alvarez, and she's reacting to seeing that she just pushed past 80% of problems fixed. She's even more excited when she reaches 88%, and then 92%. The rest of the team has similar success, and feel a cautious optimism when 4:00 finally arrives. They won't know the results until later, but will be extremely happy to learn that theirs is one of eight teams going to the CyberPatriot finals.
---
Additional information:
Air Force Association - http://www.afa.org
The Air Force Association is a civilian non-profit foundation started in 1946 to promote public education and understanding of aerospace and its role in national defense. AFA conceived and developed the CyberPatriot program and is providing funding and logistical support, with assistance from program partners SAIC, CIAS, and General Dynamics. AFA conducts a wide array of programs nation-wide in support of their educational objectives.
Air Force Junior ROTC - http://www.afoats.af.mil/afjrotc/
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a Federal program sponsored by the United States Air Force in high schools across the country. The main goal of the program is to instill values of citizenship, service to the United States, personal responsibility, and sense of accomplishment to its members. Secondary school students who enroll in the AFJROTC program are offered a wide variety of curricular and extra-curricular activities.
Civil Air Patrol - http://www.gocivilairpatrol.com
The Civil Air Patrol was founded in 1941, and is the United States Air Force Auxiliary. CAP's three main objectives are to provide emergency services, cadet programs, and aerospace education. CAP performs in a wide variety of roles including flying search and rescue, disaster relief, and homeland security missions. CAP officers conduct programs for members and cadets which provide real-world experience and leadership opportunities. CAP aerospace education programs are conducted nation-wide to support the goal of educating our nation's next generation of leaders.
Newburgh Free Academy - http://newburghschools.org/schools/nfa/nfaindex.php
Newburgh Free Academy is a public high school, and as part of the Newburgh Enlarged City School District provides education and career preparation to students in grades 9-12. Programs of study include NYS Regents curricula in science and mathematics. The Air Force Junior ROTC program at NFA was founded in 1975. Mr. Peter Copeletti is Principal of Newburgh Free Academy.
Return to AFA Press Releases
|
