Students Show Off Cyber Skills in National Competition

Last week, two PGIA high school CyberPatriot teams competed in Round 1 of the annual defensive cybersecurity competition. CyberPatriot allows students hands-on practice in marketable, real-world cyber defense skills. They perform tasks that professionals use to secure computer and network systems. Over 5,000 teams are registered for this competition, including teams in every state and overseas. PGIA was the ONLY school in the Virgin Islands to compete in Round 1 and our Team A landed in the top 50% of teams!

"I choose to participate in CyberPatriot to further my understanding of the lack of security that the Internet has brought us,” says Alexis Harris, Co-Captain. “I appreciated trying to do my best and participate on the team even though I might lack in certain areas. My partner and I scored 55 points on our virtual computer and we really contributed to our group's success. That feels good!”

The competition window lasts 6 hours and there is no way to know or prepare in advance for everything. (Special kudos to Zia, who unlocked some important skills on the Ubuntu Linux operating system in the middle of the competition!)

High School CyberPatriot Team Members:
Grade 11: Amelie(Team Captain), Ella Popple, Divina
Grade 10: Ella Crew, Dallas
Grade 9: Maceo, Alexis, Micah, Zia, Lyle, Mariana (Zia and Alexis Team Co-Captains)

Thank you to Technical Mentor Dr. Marc Boumedine of UVI, who was present during the entire round to help solve any technical hurdles and make sure all the competition software functioned properly.

We are still recruiting Middle School students to compete in Round 2! Interested students can reach out to Mrs. Hoffart at rhoffart@students.vimsia.org or come to our practices after school on Tuesdays from 3:30 to 4:30.

CyberPatriots

on display

Over 5,000 teams are registered for this competition, including teams in every state and overseas.

CyberPatriots Round #2

In the middle of exams and end-of-semester assignments,  four VIMSIA students participated in the second round of this year's CyberPatriot competition.

After a successful, socially-distanced but in-person Round 1, the team adapted to current conditions and went with a "Zoom in" version for Round 2. At the same time, this did create additional technical difficulties. The team could persevere with help from the school admin to help provide all the resources we could need. Thank you to the team’s Technical Mentor, Marc Boumedine, for last-minute firewall help. Thank you, especially to the team members who could participate:  Mimi Boumedine, Lindsay Barr, Divina Kamara, and Amelie Zucker.

Even though these IB students are overwhelmed with all of their end of semester exams and assignments, yet they showed up via Zoom today, ready to go. Rebecca Hoffart, Cyber Patriot Coach, said, “I am so, so proud of them! Due to the technical issues of trying to control virtual images remotely via Zoom, we had to mostly work on only one computer image challenge at a time (normally we work on three at a time for up to six hours!)”

Typically full points in this competition on three computer images would be 300 points - with 6 hours available for each image if the team works on them all at once. Working on one at a time, the team only had 2 hours available per image.  So a perfect score under those conditions might be 100 points at the absolute best.

Hoffart said, “I am so proud to say that our team scored 135 points today! This is a testament to the team members’ ability to overcome frustrations and carry on, even when the circumstances are quite difficult. According to the current Cyberpatriot scoreboard, our team competed for 5 hours and 16 minutes, via Zoom, on a Sunday, the week before midterm exams. As a reference point, the SAT exam lasts 3 hours. We have some amazing students at PGIA, and the schools were very well represented in Round 2 of CyberPatriot.”

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)

PGIA Cyber Patriots Making their Mark!

This year PGIA is fielding two teams in the Air Force Association's National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. Thousands of teams from all around the world compete online, securing virtual computer systems against hacking, malware, and all kinds of other vulnerabilities.

We know how important this is. Students are gaining real world, hard and soft skills.

In the first year, CyberPatriot teams rarely do well. There is a HUGE learning curve and it can be very frustrating for young people. The competition rounds are intense, last SIX hours, and require a lot of focus, teamwork, concentration and study. Our PGIA Middle School Team and High School Team have risen above all this.

Here's the good stuff. Our Middle School team has a real chance to qualify for the semifinals. Our High School team has placed at the GOLD TIER level (I still can't believe it, but it's true) and will try to get to semifinals as well - at this very tough level of competition. These are incredible accomplishments. I've never heard of first year teams reaching these levels.

Both teams competed against literally thousands of other teams. We have competed in two rounds of competition so far and have been holding regular practices. Our next round is this Saturday, December 7, and it is a MAKE or BREAK round which will determine our final placement in the competition. It will be tough going.

I am the proudest CyberPatriot coach ever!

High School Team

• Mimi Boumedine

• Ny'Kel Emanuel

• Orin Hayes

• Timothy Hayes

• Alexander Pahlavan

Middle School Team

• Krishiv Amarnani

• Alessa Carty

• Stanley Trotman\

• Khalid Warrell

• Amelie Zucker

Huge thanks to school admin for their constant support and instant response to any need! Huge thanks to Mr. Enright for getting us the best tech set-up possible! Huge thanks to Dr. Boumedine for serving as our technical mentor - he puts in a lot hours making sure we are ready for each round. Huge thanks to the families of the team members for their support - especially Mrs. Hayes for providing the amazing buffet for the teams!

Go Volts Go!

Mrs. Hoffart, Cyber Patriots Coach