The Academy’s CyberLancers competed against 517 teams nationwide in the state recognition round for the CyberPatriot contest via the Internet on Feb. 21.

CyberPatriot involves securing computers against hackers, viruses, malware and bad password policies, essentially keeping network computers safe. In the competition, students had virtual images with flaws. Team members had to find as many flaws as possible and fix them in a specified period of time.

Team captain Sara Tashima and seniors Innika Pang, Katie Lee, Chloe Huang, Christine Lee and Sara Nam took part in the competition, the goal of which was to teach students to be ethical in using their skills and to make cyberspace safer.
Pang said, “Our main goal for the competition was to fix as many vulnerabilities while getting the most points.”

Coach Deborah Kula said, “The CyberLancers took charge of three computer images: Windows 8 with 32 vulnerabilities and 17 successfully mitigated, Windows 2008 Server with 31 vulnerabilities and 17 successfully mitigated and Ubuntu 12.04 with 31 vulnerabilities and 16 successfully mitigated.”

The overall team score was 134 points, finishing just short of the top 100 teams which competed.

Kula said, “They learned about computer security, how to keep their own and family and friends’ computers safe, and how to work under pressure since it was six hours long.”

Lee said, “The competitions focused on IT-based work, such as securing vulnerabilities on a server or work station. When I first participated in CyberPatriot, I had no knowledge of auditing or working with programs like Wireshark, but since being in the competitions, I would say it has helped me develop an understanding of how to secure a computer, especially my own.”

Kula said, “The CyberPatriot competitions allow high school students to learn and develop their computer skills, mainly focusing on protecting the workstation/server from hackers.”

Nguyen said, “The competition allowed me to apply what I’ve learned in class and during our meetings to a ‘real world’ situation.’”