CyberPatriot

This page is a work in progress.

What is CyberPatriot?

Basic Information

- Established by the Air Force Association (AFA), CyberPatriot or the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, is part of the National Youth Cyber Education Program, a program designed to inspire students from levels K-12 towards a career in cybersecurity. CyberPatriot, the nation's largest cyber defense competition, places high school and middle school students in Windows and Linux based environments, tasking these students with securing a virtual machine. All scenarios are designed to replicate real life threats, providing students with the training necessary to secure not only virtual machines, but physical hardware as well.

CyberPatriot Competition

- The CyberPatriot competition is composed of several rounds. Each of these rounds consists of several tasks, in which teams will partake in two challenges in earn points:

• Network Security Challenge
• Cisco Networking Challenge

Network Security Challenge

- The network security challenge tasks students in locating and eliminating vulnerabilities found in a variety of operation systems. Each vulnerability fixed grants the team points, placing them higher up on the leader board. Vulnerabilities can range from removing unauthorized users to uninstalling malicious software. Operating systems utilized in the CyberPatriot competition include the following:

• Windows 10
• Windows Server
• Ubuntu
• Debian

Cisco Networking Challenge

- The Cisco networking challenge on the other hand, tasks students with completing an online quiz. As well as configuring a virtual network utilizing the program Packet Tracer.

Warriors of the Net Club

- At Chamberlain's discretion, recruitment for the Warriors of the Net club will begin sometime in the month of August. A slide will be created and posted to the morning announcements.

First Meeting

- The date of the first meeting and what days we meet will be at Chamberlain's discretion. The first meeting will be primarily focused on re-chartering the club, information regarding CyberPatriot, and as per tradition, watching the Warriors of the Net video. During this meeting, we will also hold elections for the following positions:

• President
• Vice President
• Secretary
• Treasurer

- Within this club, the positions listed above truly mean nothing and are only for the purpose of re-chartering the club. Why did we dedicate a whole bullet point list for the positions then? Cause we can.

A Typical Meeting

- Meetings will typically last between 30 minutes to an hour. Depending on how long you want to stay after school or when Chamberlain gets tired of us. Within these meetings, we'll typically be doing one of the following:

• Downloading Images
• Practicing with the Demo Image
• Conducting Research on Cyber Security

- Although it may not seem like much, it is very important to attend all our club meetings. Failure to do so will result in punishment from the EtherWhip™. Thus, it is strongly suggested that you attend our club meetings.

CyberPatriot Teams

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CyberPatriot Set-Up Process

- Before beginning the CyberPatriot competition, several steps must be completed. This steps include the following:

• Image Download: About a week before the competition date, the images to be utilized will be available for download. Mr. Chamberlain will receive an email regarding image download, and provide the necessary document with download links and passcodes. This document will be in the form of a Google Doc, and can be located in the MHS Cyberpatriot Google classroom. Download these images to your computer and upload them to the network drive. This can most effectively be accomplished by each student downloading a single image of a different type. It is unnecessary for all students to download a copy of the image, as it will slow down the Internet.
• Upload to Network Drive: Once you have downloaded the image, upload the folder to the network drive labeled Cisco Curriculum. Once within the drive, you will upload the folder to a new folder labeled Cyberpatriot XV or otherwise specified by Mr. Chamberlain.
• Competition Date: You can view the current competition schedule for the 2022 - 2023 year here. Each round occurs during a period of three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We will meet on a Saturday unless otherwise specified by Mr. Chamberlain. Your team has a limited amount of time during the round, so try not to show up late or leave early.
• Location: Competitions will take place in the Chamberlain's classroom (Room 118) here at MHS. Students will typically arrive at the gate between culinary and the library at 9:00 a.m. Make sure to arrive on time so that you can be let onto campus. If you show up and no one is at the gate, make sure to contact Chamberlain or another student via any form of digital communications.
• Image Download and Set-up: Once seated at your computer, access the network drive and drag the image to your desktop. Using the provided decryption code, unlock the folder and extract it. Open VMWare and (insert instructions)
• Beginning the Round Image: Once you have booted up your virtual machine, enter your team's unique identifier. Congratulations, you have begun, this applies to all images. Your team will have 6 hours (check to see if right) to complete the images. Make sure to submit all images before the deadline, or your team will lose points.