VIMSIA Students Compete in Cybersecurity Competition

On Sunday, a socially-distanced, masked, and temperature-checked VIMSIA CyberPatriot team met in the library for their first round of the annual competition. Lindsay Barr, Mireille Boumedine, Ian Gutierrez, and Amelie Zucker competed actively for over 5 hours. The team members worked together, and they worked extremely hard. They fixed vulnerabilities in three different computer systems (Windows 10, Windows Server, and Ubuntu Linux), answered digital forensics questions, and completed a networking quiz.

The VIMSIA CyberPatriot team ended with a base score of 232, placing in the top 50% of their division according to unofficial results. Half of the VIMSIA team is competing for the first time this year, and this is the second time the school is participating in this event. The team benefited from free online training provided by Sandia National Laboratories.

CyberPatriot is the National Youth Cyber Education Program created by the Air Force Association (AFA) that inspires K-12 students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines. One of their main programs is the annual National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, which places high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing a small company’s network. The top teams in the nation earn all-expenses-paid trips to Maryland for the National Finals Competition, where they can earn national recognition and scholarship money.

Team coach Rebecca Hoffart said, “I am extremely proud of our team's achievement today! I extend a special thanks to the parents of team members for allowing them to compete, providing transportation, and offering enthusiastic support.”

Team members:
Lindsay Barr (Grade 10)
Mireille Boumedine (Grade 11)
Ny’Kel Emanuel (Grade 12)
Divina Kamra (Grade 9)
Ian Gutierrez (Grade 9)
Amelie Zucker (Grade 9)