AE News

CyberPatriot

CyberPatriot I a Huge Success

The 26-27 February 2009 Concept Demonstration of a National High School Cyber Defense Competition was held in Orlando, FL, in conjunction with AFA’s 25th Annual Air Warfare Symposium. Seven Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (AFJROTC) teams and one Civil Air Patrol (CAP) team from the greater Orlando area competed ― all were given names of prominent former Air Force or Civil Air Patrol Leaders. Winners were selected on each day of the competition, and Team Spaatz (for General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz, first USAF Chief of Staff) took Thursday and Overall honors. Friday’s winner was Team Wilson (for Gil Robb Wilson, CAP co-founder), a composite team from the Florida CAP Wing.

CyberPatriot I got high marks from the participants, with all praising the network security knowledge they gained and voicing a strong desire to attend next year’s competition. Over half of the students said they were more likely to attend college as a result of the experience.

The competitors faced a series of cyber attacks and their mission was to defend and maintain service on a virtualized network of computers representative of a typical commercial network. The teams competed on a commercial platform called TeamDefend, donated by Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). SAIC personnel led by Chief Systems Engineer Duke Ayers performed the functions of "Red Team" (the attackers) and "White Team" (exercise administrators). Jim Jaeger of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems served as overall "Referee" for the competition.

The competition was led by Professor Greg White, Director of the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) at the University of Texas at San Antonio. CIAS hosts the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition. White is also an Air Force Reserve Colonel assigned to Air Force Cyber Command (Provisional).

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Page last updated: Friday, March 27, 2009 10:05:12 AM

AFA is a non-profit, independent, professional military and aerospace education association. Our mission is to promote a dominant United States Air Force and a strong national defense, and to honor Airmen and our Air Force Heritage. To accomplish this, we: EDUCATE the public on the critical need for unmatched aerospace power and a technically superior workforce to ensure U.S. national security. ADVOCATE for aerospace power and STEM education. SUPPORT the total Air Force family, and promote aerospace education.