Spokane is now home to some national champion high school students, thanks to their savvy cyber defense skills.
CyberPatriot is an annual cyber defense competition held in Washington D.C. High school teams are set up with one to three virtual machines where students must work on scanning each machine to find as much vulnerability as possible within a certain amount of time. Teams that find the most vulnerabilities advance to the next round, with winners of all three rounds competing in the national championships.
Spokane Public Schools sent seven teams from four schools to D.C. Check out how they did:
First, the starting lineups from Spokane Public Schools (read in your best Michael Buffer voice):
- The Ferris Cyber Saxons
- The Rogers Pirate Konnections
- The Rogers Cyber Pirates
- The Rogers TEC Pirates
- The Lewis & Clark Tigers Defense
- The North Central Plug ‘n’ Play
- The Rogers Air Pirates (JROTC)
These teams from Spokane represented almost 30 percent of the finalists in Washington D.C.
The teams were up against schools from across the nation, many with words like “Academy” and “Institute” and “MIT Lincoln Laboratory” in their names. Up against tough competition, multiple teams from Spokane came home with heavier suitcases than they left with, so to speak.
The LC Tigers Defense team took first place in Forensics and second place in Computer Defense in the Open Division. The Rogers Air Pirates JROTC team was named the AFJROTC service champion, and also took second place in Computer Defense.
Replicating cyber security issues is what makes this competition unique. The Air Force Association created CyberPatriot in 2008, with its goal to excite students about science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects that are so crucial for future economic success.
Check out the event program and get to know the students and their career aspirations.
Keep these names handy – who knows when your computer system might be corrupted.
