The Air Force Association (AFA) announced today winners of the National Finals Competition for the CyberPatriot XIII season.
The CyberPatriot XIII National Finals Competition was held virtually on March 19-21, 2021. This is the second year that the finals transitioned to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition, presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation, 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. Through a series of online competition rounds, teams are given a set of virtual operating systems and are tasked with finding and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities while maintaining critical services.
The season started with 4,801 teams registered to compete and the field was narrowed to just 28 teams that advanced to the National Finals Competition. In the virtual National Finals, teams participated in the TCP/IP (the Career Portal/Industry Perspectives) career exploration event and competed in the Northrop Grumman Foundation Network Security Master Challenge, the Cisco NetAcad Challenge, and the AT&T competition component. Winners were announced during the Awards Ceremony hosted on Sunday, March 21st. The top overall teams in the Open and All Service Divisions received scholarships from Northrop Grumman; and the top Open and All Service Division teams in the Cisco NetAcad Challenge received scholarships from Cisco.
Team CyberAegis Cobalt from Del Norte High School in San Diego, CA won the national championship in the Open Division, Team Runtime Terror from Troy High School in Fullerton, CA won the national championship in the All Service Division, and Team CyberAegis Technetium from Oak Valley Middle School in San Diego, CA won the national championship in the Middle School Division.
“The thirteenth season of CyberPatriot was remarkable in many respects. Not only did the competition draw nearly 5,000 teams in the middle of a highly disruptive and tragic pandemic, but the championship was as tightly contested as any in our history,” said Bernie Skoch, the CyberPatriot National Commissioner. “We congratulate our new national champions, and we commend all who competed under these trying circumstances. We extend our deepest gratitude to the Northrop Grumman Foundation and our other generous benefactors for continuing to invest in our nation’s future by building the cyber skills pipeline.”
“We are witnessing an enduring shift in how information technology is being used to stay in touch and accomplish everyday tasks — which underscores the critical role of cyber security. I’m proud of the achievements of each of our CyberPatriots and look forward to the many ways they will continue to contribute helping people around the world stay connected in meaningful and safe ways,” Sandra Evers-Manly, President, Northrop Grumman Foundation.
The full list of winning teams for CyberPatriot XIII is as follows:
Open Division:
- National Champion: Team CyberAegis Cobalt from Del Norte High School in San Diego, CA
- Runner-Up: Team CyberAegis Nobelium from Del Norte High School in San Diego, CA
- Third Place: Team VAPatriot | Cyber Age is ScubaSquad from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, VA
All Service Division:
- National Champion: Team Runtime Terror from Troy High School in Fullerton, CA
- Runner-Up: Team TXPatriot | Invicta from Roosevelt High School in San Antonio, TX
- Third Place: Team Tempest from Fullerton Composite Squadron in Fullerton, CA
Middle School Division:
- National Champion: Team CyberAegis Technetium from Oak Valley Middle School in San Diego, CA
- Runner-Up: Team CyberBots from Toby Johnson Middle School in Elk Grove, CA
- Third Place: Team CyberAegis Iridium from Design 39 Campus in San Deigo, CA
AT&T Component Winner:
- Team CyberAegis Cobalt from Del Norte High School in San Diego, CA
Open Division Cisco NetAcad Challenge:
- First Place: CyberAegis Cobalt from Del Norte High School in San Diego, CA
- Second Place: Team Crystal from Loyola Blakefield in Towson, MD
- Third Place: Team CyberAegis Nobelium from Del Norte High School in San Diego, CA
All Service Division Cisco NetAcad Challenge:
- First Place: Team Tempest from Fullerton Composite Squadron in Fullerton, CA
- Second Place: Team Runtime Terror from Troy High School in Fullerton, CA
- Third Place: Team TXPatriot | Invicta from Roosevelt High School in San Antonio, TX
Middle School Division Cisco NetAcad Challenge:
- First Place: Team CyberAegis Technetium from Oak Valley Middle School in San Diego, CA
Northrop Grumman awarded a total of $52,500 to the Open and All Service winners of CyberPatriot XIII, bringing its total scholarship contribution to more than $550,000 since becoming presenting sponsor in 2011. Scholarships are awarded to each member of the first place, runner-up, and third place teams in the two divisions.
Cisco also awarded a total of $53,000 to the Open and All Service Cisco NetAcad Challenge winners of CyberPatriot XIII. This is the second year that Cisco has awarded scholarships to the Cisco NetAcad Challenge bringing the total scholarships awarded to over $100,000.
Notably, Evan Huang from U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps Sacramento Division and Justin Lin, from Del Norte High School were recognized as Cyber All-Americans in recognition of their extraordinary achievement of reaching the National Finals Competition in each of their four high school years. Justin Lin is the first Open Division Cyber All-American in CyberPatriot history.
CyberPatriot, the nation’s largest and fastest growing youth cyber education program, is AFA’s flagship STEM program dedicated to strengthening cyber skills among students. The program features the National Youth Cyber Defense Competition for high school and middle school students, AFA CyberCamps, an Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative, the Cyber Education Literature Series, and CyberGenerations, a program promoting senior citizen cyber awareness.
CyberPatriot is presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation. Other program sponsors include Cyber Diamond sponsors AT&T and the AT&T Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Cyber Gold sponsors Air Force Reserve, BNY Mellon, Facebook, Symantec, and the USAA Foundation; and Cyber Silver sponsors Air Force STEM, American Military University, Boeing, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Gannon University, Leidos, Mastercard, University of Maryland Global Campus, and VMware.
