CyberPatriot VIII Breaks All Records

The 2015-2016 CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition has registered 3,379 teams representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the US Virgin Islands, and DOD dependent schools in Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea. This marks a 55 percent increase in team registrations from last season. “The growth and expansion of the CyberPatriot program has been astounding and we couldn’t be more proud to be influencing young people around the world to learn more about STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics] education,” said Bernie Skoch, CyberPatriot national commissioner. Beginning with a practice round this month, CyberPatriot VIII teams will compete from their home locations in a series of online qualifying rounds that challenge them to find and fix security vulnerabilities in a variety of simulated networks. Top teams from the online rounds will travel to Baltimore, Md., for the National Finals Competition April 10-14. “Congratulations to our AFA partner on another record-setting year,” said Diane Miller, director of CyberPatriot programs for Northrop Grumman. “As our nation, and the world, strives to meet the growing demand for qualified cyber professionals, CyberPatriot is doing an outstanding job answering that call and building a highly skilled workforce of tomorrow.” (See also Growing STEM Students Through CyberPatriot from the March issue of Air Force Magazine.)