BROOKINGS (KELO AM) - A team of cadet cyber-sleuths from the Big Sioux Composite Squadron in Brookings, members of the Civil Air Patrol’s South Dakota Wing, are competing in the national finals of CyberPatriot-VII which began today in Washington, D.C. The national finals competition runs from11-15 March.
Team Big Sioux consists of Team Captain C/Maj Joshua Klosterman of Brandon, C/2nd Lt Chris Dinnel, C/SMSgt Jaden Petersen, C/SSgt Sergeant Nathaniel Fleet, all from Lake Benton, MN, and C/2nd Lt Laura Rudnik of Brookings. The team is coached by Capt. Shannon Hofer of Hendricks, MN and mentored by Cadet Captain Tyler Gross of Volga.
During the online qualification rounds the Big Sioux team faced realistic, complex and sophisticated online computer network threats at their home location seeking out weaknesses in simulated online networks and working to defend those networks from threat scenarios. The team was scored according to how quickly and effectively they established and maintained the secure networks.
In recognition of their success, Team Big Sioux earned an all-expenses paid trip to the national finals. In the finals, the only in-person round, the team will compete to defend virtual networks and mobile devices from a professional aggressor team. The finalists will also face-off in three additional competition components: Digital Cyber Crime Scene Challenge, Cisco Networking Challenge, and Digital Forensics Challenge. These extra challenges broaden the cybersecurity experience and expose teams to new elements of the many career opportunities available to them. The team will be scored on how quickly and effectively they establish and maintain secure networks.
Civil Air Patrol teams compete in the “All Services Division” which consists of teams from Army, Air Force and Marine Corps Junior ROTC units, the Naval Sea Cadet Corps, and CAP. Only the top two teams in each category of the All Services Division go to the national finals. Thirteen teams will compete in the All Service Division; two each from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force JROTC and the Sea Cadets, two CAP teams and one wildcard team.
In last year’s CyberPatriot-VI competition the Big Sioux cyber-security team made it to the national finals where they placed seventh overall, no mean achievement considering 864 teams competed in the All-Service Division. However, Team Big Sioux won first place among the 320 Civil Air Patrol teams competing. In recognition of this achievement the Air Force Association presented the team with the CAP Champion Award.
CyberPatriot is a unique educational competition that challenges high school students to resolve real-life cyber-security situations faced by industry professionals. Created in 2009 by the Air Force Association, the CyberPatriot competition provides students with hands-on learning about securing computer networks while educating, and motivating them toward careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, disciplines critical to the nation’s future.
The Air Force Association (AFA), the sponsoring organization, is a non-profit, independent, professional military and aerospace education association. Its mission is to promote a dominant United States Air Force and a strong national defense, and to honor Airmen and our Air Force Heritage. AFA has 200 chapters nationally and internationally representing more than 100,000 members.
The annual CyberPatriot competition greatly benefits from the support and technical expertise of its presenting sponsor, the Northrop Grumman Foundation. Other sponsors include Cyber Diamond Sponsors, AT&T Federal, Cisco, Microsoft, Raytheon, USA Today, the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Cyber Gold Sponsors URS, Splunk, Symantec Corporation, Cyber Silver Sponsors Air Force Research Laboratory, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Leidos, MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, and University College of the University of Maryland. For more information about CyberPatriot, go to www.uscyberpatriot.org.