Almost everyone attending DAHS knows of the MCJROTC program in room 10. Some even know of the extracurricular activities that come with it, such as PT (Physical Training) Raiders, Marksmanship, and the Drill team. But what about CyberPatriots?
CyberPatriots is an Air Force run program, created in 2009, that has a main focus of teaching cybersecurity.
Dallastown has had a team since 2015.
According to Lilliana Pfleiger, the Executive Officer (XO)of the Dallastown MCJROTC program, “Like a sport or any other team, we have our on-season and off-season, and we continue to study during both. Once the season starts, we have a completion around once a month until we get to the semi-finals.”
But what makes up a team?
There are 3 points to a team; Windows, Linux, and Cisco. These are parts of competitions that the team is scored on, and as the competitions get harder, more varieties of each category are given to work on.
During competitions, Windows and Linux are given a computer, and with that computer are vulnerabilities and security issues, it’s the teams’ job to fix those vulnerabilities, and once fixed, they will receive points.
However, Cisco is different.
Those who are a part of Cisco are quizzed on the material they’ve learned and are given something similar to a virtual machine but instead of it having a variety of vulnerabilities, it is strictly networking.
MCJROTC CyberPatriots teams only compete against other MCJROTC teams, however, other branches are in CyberPariots and some aren’t from JROTC at all.
So far,
Students who are a part of the CyberPatriots team are known to be tech-savvy, as would be expected for this program, but they also are given many benefits and opportunities such as scholarships.
“If you’re among the finalists, AFA (Air Force Academy) will fly you to Maryland, free of cost. “The National Cyber Scholarship Foundation offers Platinum tier competitors (teams scoring in the top 30%) cybersecurity training scholarships worth over $3,000.”
Pfleiger states that the Cyberpatriots team at DAHS has a goal of going to Nationals in DC. She also states an accomplishment of theirs and how she hopes they can improve.
“We have been 1st in PA for the last 9 years and hopefully 10 this year,” Pfleiger stated. She goes on to explain that each team is very different and that there are many variables in each team, such as the number of competitors on each team. This year, DHS’s CyberPatriots team has 10.
CyberPatriots is one of the many “extracurriculars” MCJROTC at DHS offers, but it may be the most memorable.
“It’s a phenomenal program that’s given these kids [in CyberPatriots] valuable skills for careers in cybersecurity, and at the same time, it’s given them a platform to compete in a way that’s not in the traditional sports arena.” Major White explains.
He also discusses the success of cadets who participate in cybersecurity competitions rather than “normal” sports competitions.
DHS’ CyberPatriots team has won state championships for the last nine and almost ten years, and he says he is very proud to have a team of people who are energetic about technology and protecting it from all forms of attacks that the world takes for granted every day.
