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Sport | Cybersecurity (Hardening and Defense) (Basic skills and hardening best practices (Online rounds and National Finals), Defending in RVB environment session (At the National Finals only)) |
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Founded | 2008 |
First season | CyberPatriot I (2008–2009) |
Commissioner | Rachel Zimmerman |
Administrator | Air Force Association |
Divisions | All Service, Open, Middle School |
No. of teams | All Service: 942, Open: 2160, Middle School: 921, Total: 4023 (CyberPatriot XVII - 2024–2025) |
Countries | United States and Limited International Countries |
Sponsor(s) | www |
Related competitions | National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition |
Tournament format | Online Rounds, In-Person National Finals Competition |
Official website | www |
CyberPatriot is a national youth cyber education program for K-12 created in the United States to help direct students toward careers in cybersecurity or other computer science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. [1] [2] The program was created by the Air Force Association. [3] It is a National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for high and middle school students, and features the annual in-person National Final Competition. It is similar to its collegiate counterpart, the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC). The AFA is also affiliated with sister competitions in US-allied countries, including Canada, formerly the UK, and Australia, but such teams may also be eligible to compete separately in the main CyberPatriot program.
CyberPatriot requires teams to assume the role of cybersecurity professionals, responsible for protecting various systems in a set amount of time. The competition consists of multiple online rounds in which teams analyze virtual machines, identify vulnerabilities, and implement security measures, answer forensics questions, and secure critical services. The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) is responsible for designing, developing, and supplying the technology and virtual machines used in CyberPatriot. [4] The competition assesses participants' cybersecurity knowledge, problem-solving abilities, teamwork, and analytical thinking. [5]
The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition is now in its eighteenth season and is called "CyberPatriot 18" indicating the season's competition. CyberPatriot 18 is accessible to high schools, middle schools, and accredited homeschooling programs across the United States. JROTC units of all Services, Civil Air Patrol squadrons, and Naval Sea Cadet Corps divisions may also participate in the competition. CyberPatriot also hosts two additional sub-programs: Summer CyberCamps [6] and an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative. [7] The Northrop Grumman Foundation is the "presenting sponsor". A British spin off program is called Cyber Centurion.
CyberPatriot began in 2009 as a proof-of-concept demonstration at AFA's Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida. [8] Four organizations were responsible for developing the competition: the Air Force Association, the U.S. Air Force, the defense contractor SAIC, and the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). 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 the fall of 2009 with nearly 200 teams from 44 states competing for eight slots in 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. Over 1,500 teams from all 50 states, Canada, and DoD Dependent schools overseas competed in CyberPatriot VI. [9] CyberPatriot VII began in October 2014, with over 2,100 teams registered to compete. [10] The Middle School Division was added in CyberPatriot V. CyberPatriot IX, which started in October 2016, featuring over 4,300 registered teams. [11] The previous national commissioner who had served in that position since 2008, General Bernie Skoch, then the long-time National Commissioner, retired in June 2021, and has been replaced by Acting National Commissioner Rachel Zimmerman, who has served in other leadership roles prior to her term as commissioner.
CyberPatriot is open to high school and middle school students, offering educational opportunities and a pathway to cybersecurity careers. The program increases the awareness of cybersecurity by delivering a basic education in a competitive format that enhances leadership, communication, and cooperation skills among its competitors. [12] [13] [14]
Teams have the following members:
Each team is required to have a registered Coach, a Verification Official, 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. [15]
The competition is a tournament structure with three divisions:
The early rounds of the competition are done online during weekends via the Internet from teams' schools or other sponsoring organizations' facilities. Before the round, teams download virtual images of operating systems with known flaws or cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Each team is tasked to find the flaws while keeping specified computer functions, such as email, working. Team progress is recorded by a central CyberPatriot scoring system, known as the CyberPatriot Competition System (CCS). [16]
The scores from Qualification Rounds 1 and 2 are totaled to determine which tier a team advances to.
In the Semifinals round, only the top 25% of teams and state wild cards will be eligible to compete. Only teams in the Platinum tier are eligible for the National Finals.
In CyberPatriot XIII, only three rounds were held, with Round 1 delayed due to COVID-19 to allow coaches additional time for recruitment, according to announcements from the Air Force Association. Round 3 determined the National Finalists teams that year. [17]
The Challenges that teams may face include:
Additional competition rules are outlined below:
The highest-scoring Semifinalist teams from each division, about 28 in total, are invited to participate in the in-person National Finals Competition. For example, typically the top 12 open division teams and top 3 middle school divisions qualify until a 2 team per organization limit rule was added in the 2020-2021 season. This is held annually in the spring, with all travel and lodging expenses covered by the program. For CyberPatriot IV-VII, National Finals Competitions were held at the Gaylord National Resort & 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 were held in April of each year. Beginning in the CyberPatriot XII season to CyberPatriot XVII, the National Finals Competition was 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, the first year planned 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. [21] Currently, the competition is held in the Washington, D.C. Area. [22] The CP-XII Virtual National Finals was held on May 2, 2020, and marked the first-ever online virtual CyberPatriot National Finals Competition. Due to the widespread outbreak of COVID-19, the CyberPatriot XIII season had modifications to accommodate the delay in team administration as well as provisions for additional procedures for competing at home. Due to continued COVID-19 restrictions in the United States, provisions were made to allow remote participation in the competition, and the National Finals that season, in 2021, was also held virtually, in which competitions competed fully remotely online.
Winning teams in the Open and All-Service Divisions receive educational grants, which can be applied to an institution of their choosing. 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 the Northrop Grumman Foundation. 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
Year | Season | Team Name | School/Organization | City | Coach [Note 1] [24] | Team Members [Note 1] [24] | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | CyberPatriot I | Team Spaatz [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] | Osceola High School (Air Force JROTC (AFJROTC)) | Kissimmee, FL | Major Jeffrey A. Miller [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] | Cadets Linval Overdiep, Gretchen Rivera, Jacob Caudill, Joseph Delhoyo, Rick Hamilton, Madiha Majeed, Kiara Vazquez, John Borrero | [25] [26] [30] [27] [28] [29] [31] |
2010 | CyberPatriot II | AFJROTC Team Doolittle (Clearfield High School Air Force JROTC) [32] [33] [34] | Clearfield High School (Air Force JROTC) (UT-081) [33] [34] | Clearfield, UT | Kit K. Workman [32] [33] [34] [35] | Robert Estrada Jr., Adam Thurman, T.J. Boender, Jorge Lerma, Eric Takacs | [32] [33] [34] [35] |
2011 | CyberPatriot III | Team Wilson | Orlando Cadet Squadron (CAP) | Orlando, FL | Nina Harding [36] | C/SMSgt. Matt Allen, C/1st Lt. Josh Dovi, C/SMSgt. Evan Hamrick, C/SSgt. Isaac Harding, C/TSgt. Michael Hudson, C/2nd Lt. Shawn Wilson | [37] [36] |
2012 | CyberPatriot IV | Wolfpack | Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron | Colorado Springs, CO | Capt. Bill Blatchley | Carlin Idle, Kyal Lanum, Christopher Ottesen, John Parish, Stephen Parish, Chris Vasquez | [38] |
2013 | CyberPatriot V | Marine Military Academy | Marine Military Academy | Harlingen, TX | William Beckman | Dylan Che, Drew Hopkins, Daniil Murashov, Jose Rodriguez, Kyle Rogers | [39] |
2014 | CyberPatriot VI | Fearsome Falcons | Clearfield High School / UT-081 | Clearfield, UT | Kit Workman | John Maxfield, Kincaid Savoie, Drex Beckman, Zach Sharkey, Shay Perkins, Nate Bertoldie | [40] |
2015 | CyberPatriot VII | Marine Raiders | Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School | Fitchburg, MA | Paul Jornet | Conner Quick, Jack Marabello, Jamison LeRoche, Leon Gaulin, Nicholas Sullivan | [41] |
2016 | CyberPatriot VIII | Netrunners | Centurion Battalion | Winter Park, FL | Ken Steffey | Jacob Dawson, Nolen Johnson, Leilani Morales, Sam Precourt, Peter Steffey, Monica Vogel | [42] |
2017 | CyberPatriot IX | Wolfpack | Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron | Colorado Springs, CO | Bill Blatchley | Noah Bowe, Taylor Coffey, Zach Cramer, Garrett Jackson, Isaac Stone | [43] |
2018 | CyberPatriot X | Cyber Warriors 0 | Troy High School (Navy JROTC) | Fullerton, CA | Allen Stubblefield | Charissa Kim, Nicole Wong, David Lee, Brandon Shin, Ha Young Kong, Silas Shen | [44] |
2019 | CyberPatriot XI | Byte Sized Falcons | Scripps Ranch HS (Air Force JROTC) | San Diego, CA | Master Sergeant Ferdinand Toledo [45] | Shane Donahue, Evan Dicker, Valerie Ho, Brandon Nguyen, Alex Roh | [46] |
2020 | CyberPatriot XII | TXPatriot | chmod 755 -r /srv/ftp/Anime/ | Roosevelt High School (Engineering and Technologies Academy) (Army JROTC) | San Antonio, TX | Josh Beck [47] | Fardeen Bhimani, Frieda Farias, Tristan Lee, Harrison Lewis, Jacob Rahimi | [48] [49] [50] [47] |
2021 | CyberPatriot XIII | Runtime Terror | Troy High School (Navy JROTC) | Fullerton, CA | John-Michael Linares [51] | Taiyu Chen, Chan Chung, Justin Huang, Brian Ni, Johnny Ni, Anna Wu | [52] [51] |
2022 | CyberPatriot XIV | The Terabyte Falcons | Scripps Ranch HS (Air Force JROTC) | San Diego, CA | Ferdinand Toledo [53] | Saatvik Aggarwal, Jake Lee, Leopold Li, Nathan Min, Mikella Nuzen | [54] [53] |
2023 | CyberPatriot XV | Runtime Terror | Troy High School (Navy JROTC) | Fullerton, CA | John-Michael Linares [55] | Brian Ni, Chan Chung, Johnny Ni, Aaron Shan, Anna Wu, Victoria Yang | [56] [55] |
2024 | CyberPatriot XVI | W.A.T.T. | Troy High School (Navy JROTC) | Fullerton, CA | Allen Stubblefield [57] | Michael Xiong, Jacky Feng, Alex Wang, Craig Wu, Liwei Xia, Jacob Yu | [58] [57] |
2025 | CyberPatriot XVII | Terabyte Falcons | Scripps Ranch High School (Air Force JROTC) | San Diego, CA | Mark McLouth [59] | Audrey Li, Veer Chopra, Aarav Maheshwari, Rithvik Manikandan, Arush Sastry, Delbert Tran | [60] [59] |
Year | Season | Team Name | School/Organization | City | Coach [Note 1] [24] | Team Members [Note 1] [24] | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | CyberPatriot I | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] |
2010 | CyberPatriot II | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] | N/A [Note 2] [23] |
2011 | CyberPatriot III | Team Mantrap [36] | Red Bank Regional High School | Little Silver, NJ | Amanda “Mandy” Galante [36] | Chris Barry, Adam Cotenoff, Josh Eddy, Jared Katzman, Jack Kelleher, Colin Mahns | [61] [36] |
2012 | CyberPatriot IV | Alamo Academies | Alamo Academies | San Antonio, TX | Mike Matuszek | Theodore Belitsos II, Kenny Bias, Brian Carvan, Robert Flores, Mario Puente III, Tommy Roberts | [62] |
2013 | CyberPatriot V | Chantilly Academy | Chantilly Academy | Chantilly, VA | Joan Ozdogan | Anirudh Bagde, Weyland Chiang, Chris Kim, Brian Nguyen, Timothy A. Rothschild | [63] |
2014 | CyberPatriot VI | Azure | North Hollywood High School | North Hollywood, CA | Jay Gehringer | Travis Raser, Jake King, Issac Kim, Henry Birge-Lee, Isaac Kim | [64] |
2015 | CyberPatriot VII | CyberSloths | Grissom High School | Huntsville, AL | Chris Sutton | James Brahm, Morgan Wagner, Jeramy Lochner, Matthew Rogers, Michelle Driessnack, Christopher Lin | [65] |
2016 | CyberPatriot VIII | Team Sudo | Summit Technology Academy | Lee's Summit, MO | Lisa Oyler | Jack Bliss, Zane Brown, Christian Durst, Isaac McGee, Justin Nitz, Tyler Waits | [42] [66] |
2017 | CyberPatriot IX | Togo | North Hollywood High School | North Hollywood, CA | Jay Gehringer | Aled Cuda, Kyle Gusdorf, Jonathan Liu, Jaren Mendelsohn, Nikola Pratte | [67] |
2018 | CyberPatriot X | Togo | North Hollywood High School | North Hollywood, CA | Jay Gehringer | Jonathan Liu, Aled Cuda, Nikola Pratte, Kyle Gusdorf, Jaren Mendelsohn, Sophia Hewitt | [68] |
2019 | CyberPatriot XI | Troy Tech Support | Troy High School | Fullerton, CA | Allen Stubblefield [69] [70] | Christo Bakis, Clement Chan, Timothy Kim, Jimmy Li, Rahil Shah, Joseph Xu | [46] |
2020 | CyberPatriot XII | CyberAegis Strange Quark II | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [47] | Eric Chen, Phoenix Dimagiba, Lucy Gao, Darshan Parekh, Pranav Patil, Andrew Wang | [71] [48] [49] [50] [47] [72] |
2021 | CyberPatriot XIII | CyberAegis Cobalt | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [51] | Rohan Juneja, Akshay Rohatgi, Tanay Shah, Safin Singh, Ellen Xu, Alvin Zheng | [71] [51] |
2022 | CyberPatriot XIV | CyberAegis Flashpoint | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [53] | Rohan Juneja, Akshay Rohatgi, Tanay Shah, Safin Singh, Ethan Zhao, Alvin Zheng | [73] [53] |
2023 | CyberPatriot XV | CyberAegis Tempest | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [55] | Akshay Rohatgi, Alex Jiang, Rohan Juneja, Safin Singh, Ethan Zhao, Alvin Zheng | [74] [55] |
2024 | CyberPatriot XVI | Half Dome | Franklin High School | Elk Grove, CA | Chris Shuping [57] | Pratham Rangwala, Eriko Akanuma, Joshua Fong, Ethan Ho, Matthew Ho, Priyam Rangwala | [75] [57] |
2025 | CyberPatriot XVII | CyberAegis Phoenix | Scouting America (San Diego-Imperial Council) Exploring Post 2928 [Note 3] | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [59] | Ethan Zhao, Srijan Atti, Will Cheng, Advik Garg, Yash Parikh, Virginia Zhu | [60] [59] |
Year | Season | Team Name | School/Organization | City | Coach [Note 1] [24] | Team Members [Note 1] [24] | Refs |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | CyberPatriot I | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] |
2010 | CyberPatriot II | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] |
2011 | CyberPatriot III | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] |
2012 | CyberPatriot IV | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] |
2013 | CyberPatriot V | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] | N/A [Note 4] [23] |
2014 | CyberPatriot VI | Cyber Knights | Beach Cities Cadet Squadron (107 Knights) | San Pedro, CA | Mark Williams | Harmont Grenier, Amy Ross, Alfredo Corrales, Steve Velazco, Roberto Munoz, Alejandro Munoz | [76] |
2015 | CyberPatriot VII | Team 1 | Nysmith School for the Gifted | Herndon, VA | Bonnie McCrystal | William Tan, Ryan McCrystal, Monica Saraf, Aryaan Hussain, Bhavjeet Sanghera | [77] |
2016 | CyberPatriot VIII | CyberFalcon Millennium 360 | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson | Eric Chen, Arushi Dogra, Lucy Gao, Pranav Patil, Andrew Wang | [42] [78] [79] |
2017 | CyberPatriot IX | Error 37 | Summit Lakes Middle School | Lees Summit, MO | Teri Curp | Connor Bichsel, Tommy Cueeze, Keenan Curp, Jonah Ludiker, Ethan McFarland, Mason Sipe | [80] |
2018 | CyberPatriot X | CyberAegis Cancer Minor | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson | Kevin Hu, Bryant Jin, Devam Shrivastava, Gautam Gupta, Jeffrey Sheng, Jonathan Lin | [71] |
2019 | CyberPatriot XI | CyberAegis Chaos | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [81] [82] | Akshay Rohatgi, Aadit Gupta, Akhil Guntur, Alex Jiang, Alvin Zheng, Jonathan Lin | [71] |
2020 | CyberPatriot XII | CyberAegis Polariton | Design 39 Campus | San Diego, CA | Sheirman Szeto [47] | Aarav Arora, Brandon Chong, Rachit Jaiswal, Rohan Juneja, Safin Singh, Vardaan Sinha | [71] [48] [49] [50] [47] [72] |
2021 | CyberPatriot XIII | CyberAegis Technetium | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [51] | Brandon Chu, Eshaan Kumar, Raymond Sheng, Sophia Tang, Kate Xu, Ethan Zhao | [71] [51] |
2022 | CyberPatriot XIV | CyberAegis Cobra | Design 39 Campus | San Diego, CA | Sheirman Szeto [53] | Srijan Atti, Neil Chandra, Aditya Desai, Risha Guha, Krish Nandola, Yash Parikh | [83] [53] |
2023 | CyberPatriot XV | CyberAegis Vitalis | Design 39 Campus | San Diego, CA | Sheirman Szeto [55] | Yash Parikh, Neil Chandra, Risha Guha, Ansh Kumar, Krish Nandola, Anvay Vahia | [84] [55] |
2024 | CyberPatriot XVI | CyberAegis Callisto | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [57] | Dhyan Soni, Ethan Jin, Ronith Kumar, Ishan Shrivastava, Evyn Zhao, Virginia Zhu | [85] [57] |
2025 | CyberPatriot XVII | CyberAegis Odyssey | Scouting America (San Diego-Imperial Council) Exploring Club 2927 [Note 3] | San Diego, CA | Paul Johnson [59] | Evyn Zhao, Arya Bhatt, Samarth Hande, Siddharth Hota, Pranay Kamath, Adya Shipekar | [60] [59] |
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