On Friday, November 11, the CyberPatriot team concluded their first round of competition with their strongest start in their past three seasons of participation in the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition (a.k.a. CyberPatriot). Nearly 2,800 teams from around the globe competed in either the Open Division (for public, private, and home school teams), the All Service Division (for JROTC and similar programs) or the Middle Division. Brother Martin fields a team in the All Service and Open Divisions.

The CyberPatriot IX tournament season had the most challenging start ever. Teams were tasked to find vulnerabilities in virtual Windows and Linux PCs along with completing a Cisco networking quiz and a Packet Tracer activity. All of these challenges must be completed within a six hour time span. Brother Martin’s All Service team got the school’s first ever perfect score on a single virtual image. They were also able to find 94% of the vulnerabilities in their second image. The Open Division team scored 169 out of a possible 200 points. Plus, both teams completed the networking quiz and Packet Tracer activity.

The All Service Division team ranked in the Top 10% overall, while the Open team finished in the Top 35% of all teams. Both teams are hoping to perform as well, if not better, during Round 2 in order to be placed in the Platinum Tier of the CyberPatriot IX competition. Teams who are placed in the Platinum Tier are eligible to qualify to attend the National Finals in the Washington, D.C., area in April 2017.

Members of the All Service Team are Brandon Bonvillain, Nicholas Code, Harrison Hedgpeth, and Michael Serié. Open Team members are Joseph Bordelon, Jack Miltenberger, Daniel Petrov (not pictured), and Michael Zuppardo.