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Current season, competition or edition: CyberPatriot XVI (2023-2024) | |
Sport | Cybersecurity (Defense and Hardening) (Basic skills and best practices, defending in RVB environment session - at the National Finals) |
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Founded | 2008 |
Inaugural season | CyberPatriot I (2008-2009) |
Commissioner | Bernie Skoch |
Administrator | Air Force Association |
Divisions | All Service, Open, Middle School |
No. of teams | All Service: 1885, Open: 3630, Middle School: 1245, Total: 6760 (CyberPatriot XII - 2019-2020) |
Countries | United States and Limited International Countries |
Sponsor(s) | Northrop Grumman Foundation |
Related competitions | National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition |
Tournament format | Online Rounds, National Finals Competition |
Official website | https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/ |
CyberPatriot is a national youth cyber education program created in the United States to help direct students toward careers in cybersecurity or another computer, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. The program was created by the Air Force Association (AFA). 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 (CCDC), especially at the CyberPatriot National Finals Competition.
The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition is now in its fifteenth season and is called "CyberPatriot XV" indicating the season's competition. CyberPatriot XV 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 [1] and an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative. [2] 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. 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. 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, featuring over 4,300 registered teams. The previous national commissioner who has served in that position since 2008, General Bernie Skoch, has 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 designed to be accessible to any high school or middle school student, provides a path from high school to college/workforce, and benefits all national CyberPatriot partners. 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.
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.
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. 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 (services such as email) 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 (according to AFA email announcements), 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 (all expenses paid) to the in-person National Finals Competition each spring. For CyberPatriot IV-VII, National Finals Competitions were 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 were 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 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 has modifications to accommodate the delay in team administration as well as provisions for additional procedures for competing at home. Because the spread of COVID-19 in the US continued, some schools had restrictions on in-person activities, which was accounted for by arrangements for optionally staying home to compete as well as an organization type for registration.
The Challenges that teams may face include:
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 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 |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | CyberPatriot I | Osceola High School AFJROTC | Osceola High School | Kissimmee, FL |
2010 | CyberPatriot II | Clearfield High School Air Force JROTC | Clearfield High School | Clearfield, UT |
2011 | CyberPatriot III | Team Wilson | Orlando Cadet Squadron | Orlando, FL |
2012 | CyberPatriot IV | Wolfpack | Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron | Colorado Springs, CO |
2013 | CyberPatriot V | Marine Military Academy | Marine Military Academy | Harlingen, TX |
2014 | CyberPatriot VI | Osceola High School AFJROTC | Osceola High School | Kissimmee, FL |
2015 | CyberPatriot VII | Fearsome Falcons | Clearfield High School | Clearfield, UT |
2016 | CyberPatriot VIII | Netrunners | Centurion Battalion | Winter Park, FL |
2017 | CyberPatriot IX | Wolfpack | Colorado Springs Cadet Squadron | Colorado Springs, CO |
2018 | CyberPatriot X | Cyber Warriors 0 | Troy High School Navy JROTC | Fullerton, CA |
2019 | CyberPatriot XI | Byte Sized Falcons | Scripps Ranch HS Air Force JROTC | San Diego, CA |
2020 | CyberPatriot XII | chmod 755 -r /srv/ftp/Anime/ | Roosevelt High School Army JROTC | San Antonio, TX |
2021 | CyberPatriot XIII | Runtime Terror | Troy High School Navy JROTC | Fullerton, CA |
2022 | CyberPatriot XIV | The Terabyte Falcons | Scripps Ranch HS Air Force JROTC | San Diego, CA |
2023 | CyberPatriot XV | Runtime Terror | Troy High School Navy JROTC | Fullerton, CA |
Year | Season | Team Name | School/Organization | City |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | CyberPatriot I | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2010 | CyberPatriot II | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2011 | CyberPatriot III | Red Bank Regional High School | Red Bank Regional High School | Little Silver, NJ |
2012 | CyberPatriot IV | Alamo Academies | Alamo Academies | San Antonio, TX |
2013 | CyberPatriot V | Chantilly Academy | Chantilly Academy | Chantilly, VA |
2014 | CyberPatriot VI | Azure | North Hollywood High School | North Hollywood, CA |
2015 | CyberPatriot VII | CyberSloths | Grissom High School | Huntsville, AL |
2016 | CyberPatriot VIII | Sudo | Summit Technology Academy | Lee's Summit, MO |
2017 | CyberPatriot IX | Togo | North Hollywood High School | North Hollywood, CA |
2018 | CyberPatriot X | Togo | North Hollywood High School | North Hollywood, CA |
2019 | CyberPatriot XI | Troy Tech Support | Troy High School | Fullerton, CA |
2020 | CyberPatriot XII | CyberAegis Strange Quark II | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA |
2021 | CyberPatriot XIII | CyberAegis Cobalt | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA |
2022 | CyberPatriot XIV | CyberAegis Flashpoint | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA |
2023 | CyberPatriot XV | CyberAegis Tempest | Del Norte High School | San Diego, CA |
Year | Season | Team Name | School/Organization | City |
---|---|---|---|---|
2009 | CyberPatriot I | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2010 | CyberPatriot II | N/A | N/A | N/AHA |
2011 | CyberPatriot III | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2012 | CyberPatriot IV | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2013 | CyberPatriot V | N/A | N/A | N/A |
2014 | CyberPatriot VI | Cyber Knights | Beach Cities Cadet Squadron | San Pedro, CA |
2015 | CyberPatriot VII | Team 1 | Nysmith School for the Gifted | Herndon, VA |
2016 | CyberPatriot VIII | CyberFalcon Millennium 360 | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA |
2017 | CyberPatriot IX | Error 37 | Summit Lakes Middle School | Lees Summit, MO |
2018 | CyberPatriot X | CyberAegis Cancer Minor | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA |
2019 | CyberPatriot XI | CyberAegis Chaos | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA |
2020 | CyberPatriot XII | CyberAegis Polariton | Design 39 Campus | San Diego, CA |
2021 | CyberPatriot XIII | CyberAegis Technetium | Oak Valley Middle School | San Diego, CA |
2022 | CyberPatriot XIV | CyberAegis Cobra | Design 39 Campus | San Diego, CA |
2023 | CyberPatriot XV | CyberAegis Vitalis | Design 39 Campus | San Diego, CA |
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