CyberPatriot

History

Goals and objectives

Team Composition

• Coach: An approved adult leader—such as a teacher, parent, or designated supervisor—who completes the team's registration and provides oversight throughout the competition period.
• Verification Official: An administrator from the participating organization who is responsible for confirming the Coach’s eligibility and approval in accordance with program requirements.
• Competitors: A group of two to six students, consisting of up to five primary competitors and one alternate, who participate in the competition and complete all assigned tasks.
• Technical Mentor : A qualified adult volunteer who possesses technical expertise and supports the team’s preparation by offering guidance in cybersecurity concepts and competition-related skills.
• Team Assistant : An individual who aids the Coach with administrative duties related to team management and logistics throughout the competition season.

Competition guidelines

1. Open High School Division: Open to all public, private, parochial, magnet, charter, home schools, and special groups such as CampFire, Boys & Girls Club, Boy Scouts, Church Youth Groups, Girl Scouts, etc.
2. All-Service Division: Open to all JROTC Services, Civil Air Patrol squadrons, US Naval Sea Cadet Corps units. The registration fee is waived for teams competing in the All-Service Division
3. Middle School Division: Open to all middle schools and junior high schools which follow the same common organizations as mentioned above in the Open High School Division.

• Platinum: Top 30% of teams. Rounds include State, Semifinals, and National Finals.
• Gold: Middle 40% of teams. Rounds include State and Semifinals.
• Silver: Bottom 30% of teams. Rounds include State and Semifinals.

1. Network Security Challenge, in which teams fix vulnerabilities in "images" of Operating Systems that have been purposely tampered with, During Nationals, competitors also must protect the virtual machines (VMs) from "Red Team" which is a group of "hackers" that will exploit vulnerabilities on the competitor's machines. The Operating Systems in CP-XVII included: Windows 10, Windows 11, Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2022, Ubuntu 22, and Mint 21.
2. Cisco Networking Challenge, in which teams show their knowledge about Cisco Packet Tracer, and take a Cisco quiz.
3. CyberPatriot Web-Based Challenge, in which competitors compete in a CTF-like challenge. This challenge is currently only in the Semifinals Round.
4. Boeing Cyber-Physical System Challenge, in which teams are presented with an operational system that tracks and maintains flight information. This challenge is currently only in the Semifinals Round.

• The Qualification Competition begins as soon as this image is opened and ends 4 consecutive hours later, after which the score will be logged. Attempting to continue after the time limit will incur penalties. It is the coach's responsibility to ensure their team does not exceed the limit.
• Only one instance of the image can be opened at any given time. Opening multiple instances of a virtual image will result in a penalty.
• No person may compete on a team with which they are not registered, and may only be registered with one team per competition.
• During the competition, no outside assistance may be given to or received from anyone.
• No competitor may offer assistance to another after their round ends and the other begins.
• No outside communication is allowed during the competition. This includes but is not limited to verbal, electronic, written or coded.
• No offensive activity of any kind is permitted, including but not limited to hacking through programs or manual code injection, interfering with another team through social engineering, deception, and/or attaining the opposing machine.

National Finals Competition

List of CyberPatriot National Champions