Fishburne Military School CyberPatriots Advance in National Competition

Fishburnes Military School’s CyberPatriot team Skypes with JMU Cyber Defense Club members during a team practice this week.

Waynesboro, VA — The Fishburne Military School JROTC CyberPatriot team is busily preparing for the 2nd round of this year’s national competition and this year FMS JROTC has brought a little extra firepower to bear. James Madison University ROTC’s Cyber Defense Club has been tapped to act as advisors and mentors to the Caissons for the 2016-2017 season and is already bringing some innovation into the training and practice regimen.

This week the FMS CyberPatriots conducted their team meeting and practice along with advisors from the JMU program providing insights and tips through the use of a Skype session. “This is really exciting,” notes FMS Senior Army Instructor, LTC Robert Hunt, “and we are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to interact with and learn from members of the James Madison University team.”

CyberPatriot competition was conceived by the Air Force Association (AFA) to inspire students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future. The competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company.

In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services in a six hour period.  Teams compete for the top placement within their state and region, and the top teams in the nation earn all-expenses paid trips to Baltimore, MD for the National Finals Competition where they can earn national recognition and scholarship money.

The goal of every CyberPatriot competition is to find and fix vulnerabilities in their images. These images range from simple (e.g. giving users strong passwords) to much more complex. Some rounds also include networking challenges in the form of quizzes and Cisco Packet Tracer activities. Teams can also gain points by answering questions about their actions on the image.

When teams fix a vulnerability that is being checked, they receive points. If they take an action that makes a system less secure, they lose points. Teams can also gain points by answering forensics questions about actions they took to solve their vulnerabilities. Teams can checked their progress on their score report page.

During competition, a live scoreboard is available for teams to see how they stack up against others in the country. These scores are unofficial and undergo review by CyberPatriot staff following the competition.

For more information about the CyberPatriot program and competition, please visit: https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/home

Fishburne Military School is the oldest and smallest of all military schools for boys in Virginia. Its college-prep curriculum is built upon the structure of an Army JROTC program. FMS is designated as a JROTC Honor Unit with Distinction and may nominate qualified candidates to the United States Service Academies. Fishburne hosts one of only four Summer JROTC programs in the nation, accredited by US Army Cadet Command.