Neel Mehta
The Air Force Association has announced the 28 teams representing high schools, service academies and middle schools that will compete at the final round of the three-day CyberPatriot X national competition that is set to kick off April 16 in Baltimore, Maryland.
AFA said Tuesday the finalists will compete to defend mobile devices and virtual networks from a professional aggressor team.
The final round includes the Cisco Networking Challenge, AT&T Mobile Device competition and the Facebook Challenge designed to expand student teams’ cybersecurity experience.
“We’re very excited CyberPatriot participants pursue STEM and cyber education and career opportunities at a higher rate than the national average,†said Diane Miller, director of global cyber education and workforce development programs at Northrop Grumman.
“CyberPatriot is also leading the way in building the pipeline of diverse cyber talent, with 40 percent of participants coming from culturally diverse backgrounds and 23 percent females,†Miller added.
The competition started in October 2017 and the association said 5,584Â student teams signed up for the event, a figure that represents a 26 percent rise from the prior year.
Companies that serve as CyberPatriot sponsors include Northrop, Cisco, AT&T, Facebook, Boeing, Microsoft, Leidos, Symantec, Splunk and Mastercard.
