CyberPatriot Open Division Successfully Completes First Round of Competition

ARLINGTON, Va., Nov. 16, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hundreds of students representing public, private, parochial and home schools competed last Saturday, November 13, in the preliminary round for CyberPatriot's Open Division.

Produced by the Air Force Association, a nonprofit organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C.-area, CyberPatriot is the premier high school cybersecurity competition in the nation. This exclusive competition was designed to give students a hands-on learning experience in cyber defense and inspire them to consider science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields in their studies.

After six hours of extracting vulnerabilities and warding off simulated attacks on virtualized computer networks during Saturday's competition, 85 teams of the 176 registered will be competing again in the second Open Division round on December 11. Scores from both the first and second round will be considered in determining who qualifies to participate in the January 8 semifinals.

"These students are fired up about cybersecurity and we are ecstatic about their curiosity, excitement and eagerness to learn more," said Bernie Skoch, CyberPatriot Commissioner. "The students demonstrated great tenacity in completing these difficult tasks lined up in our competition, and we congratulate all of the teams for participating."

CyberPatriot has caught the attention of educators and students across the nation, with more than 650 teams originally registered to participate in the competition. The two-track competition has teams registered from public, private, parochial and home schools in the Open Division while JROTC units of all Services and Civil Air Patrol squadrons filled the All-Service Division.  

Teams are ranked according to how quickly and effectively they established and maintained secure networks. The top teams will continue to compete in a series of online rounds to determine the finalists for scholarship money and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. and the Championship Round at the Gaylord National Convention Center in April 2011.

CyberPatriot is presented by Northrop Grumman, with founding partners SAIC and the CIAS at the University of Texas-San Antonio. A list of advancing teams and more information about CyberPatriot can be found at http://www.uscyberpatriot.org.

The AFA is a 501(C)(3), nonprofit organization promoting public understanding of aerospace power and the pivotal role it plays in the security of the nation. AFA has more than 200 chapters nationally and internationally representing 125,000 members. Visit www.AFA.org.

SOURCE Air Force Association

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