On Saturday, five high school students huddled around a table in the corner of a computer lab at the Innovation Center in Longmont. Strapped with the cyber skills and the comforting feeling of working alongside trusted teammates, the group of five, also known as The Knights, set off to compete in a CyberPatriot competition.
CyberPatriot, the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air Force Association, is designed “to inspire K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future,” according to the CyberPatriot website.
In recent years, the St. Vrain Valley School District, or SVVSD, has developed their cybersecurity curriculum to provide secondary school students like The Knights with the opportunity to participate in CyberPatriot competitions.
Taking advantage of the district’s updates to the curriculum, this weekend, The Knights and another of SVVSD’s nine cybersecurity teams went up against thousands of other students across the nation in this year’s fourth and semifinal round of CyberPatriot’s National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, which is considered the nation’s largest cyber defense competition.
The SVVSD teams vied in the semifinal round of the competition at the gold level — the second-highest tier of competitors which falls beneath the platinum tier. Both groups of students battled for their team’s spot in the platinum tier, from which the top 12 teams in the nation are selected to advance to the national finals CyberPatriot competition in Bethesda, Maryland.
Throughout each six-hour-long round of the CyberPatriot competition, students face a series of challenges which require them to find and fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities in virtual operating systems. Teams earn points by successfully protecting the networks against cybersecurity threats. As The Knights progressed through the semifinals on Saturday, however, they noticed that each task presented increasing challenges.
Comparing the semifinals to previous rounds of the CyberPatriot competition, Knights Member Yash Deshpande said, “fundamentally it’s the same, it’s just much more difficult than other rounds,” sparking murmurs of agreement from his fellow team members.
“We are really close to getting points on (every challenge),” Knights Member Kaushik Chandana added. “We’re just not able to take the final step to get them.”
Chandana and The Knights may not have been able to achieve everything they set out to, but student participation is the goal for SVVSD. According to Beth Cerrone, the instructional cybersecurity and technology manager at the Innovation Center for SVVSD, the district's main goal is to provide students with real-life authentic learning experiences.
“CyberPatriot gives us that in a fun, competitive environment where students gain practical skills in systems administration,” Cerrone said. Additionally, the program connects and teaches them invaluable collaboration skills, she continued.
CyberPatriot undoubtedly helped connect SVVSD students in the case of The Knights, a team of five high schoolers who double as good friends, according to the group..
The birth of The Knights occurred approximately five years ago when four middle school students came together and bonded over a shared interest in cybersecurity. Shortly after its inception, the group was split as some members graduated middle school and continued on to Niwot High School, while others attended Silver Creek High School.
Today, the original four Knights and their newest member, Ming Hong Liew, who joined the team two years ago, look forward to CyberPatriot meetings and competitions so they can all reconnect with one another.
Although the group’s participation in future CyberPatriot competitions is still uncertain, Chandana said he and his teammates would encourage others to get involved in cybersecurity, each citing his own reasons for loving the activity.
“I would suggest that everyone should try (cybersecurity) out because you learn a lot of valuable things about computers in general,” Deshpande said, “even if you just try it for one year, I think it’s definitely worth it.”
“I would say to do (cybersecurity) with friends because it’s ten times more enjoyable that way,” Hong Liew said. “Or do it with someone and try to get to know them. You’re going to be doing these competitions for like six hours and they’re pretty tough, so if you don’t know or if you’re not friendly with (your teammates), it’s not gonna be fun.”
