In their first year of participating in the Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot competition, Randolph-Macon Academy’s Air Force Junior ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) cadets have managed to exceed their instructors’ expectations.
The CyberPatriot competition is a national cyber defense competition for youth, in which teams of two to six students try to solve a series of cyber security challenges. During an assigned three-day time period, the students go online to extract virtual machine images. They must then find and fix vulnerabilities in these images. They receive points for fixing vulnerabilities and lose points for making systems less secure. The series of challenges must be completed during six consecutive hours during the three-day period.
The CyberPatriot Program Office notified the Randolph-Macon Academy team via email on Tuesday, February 23, 2016 of its first-place finish in the All Service Division Gold Tier State Round. The Randolph-Macon team consists of juniors Finn Wiley of Burke, VA, and Lucas Costa ’17 of Monmouth, OR, as well as sophomores Cyrus Lesko ’18 of Saginaw, MI, and Victoria Voellm ’18 of Lexington Park, MD. The coaches are Lt Col R.G. McManus ‘80, USAF, Retired, and MSgt Doug French, USAF, Retired.
The rankings for Cyberpatriot are complex. Teams compete in two initial rounds, with their scores subsequently added together. The top 30% in each category (Air Force JROTC, Army JROTC, Civil Air Patrol, Marine Corps JROTC, Navy JROTC, or Naval Sea Cadet Corps) move onto the Platinum Tier competition at the State Level. The middle 40% move onto the Gold Tier State Round, while the bottom 30% move onto the Silver Tier State Round. This year, a total of 681 teams entered the competition.
McManus said he was thrilled with the team’s first-place finish in the Gold Tier. “This was a team which came together shortly before the start of the competition,” he said. “The cadets took the initiative, learning from each round to improve their score and to fully understand the competition. Flexibility and their willingness to work together as a team was critical to their success. I simply explained the objectives and pointed them in the direction they needed to study. They did the rest, including numerous hours studying the different operating and network systems.”
Randolph-Macon Academy (R-MA), founded in 1892, is a college-preparatory, coeducational day and boarding school for students in grades 6 through 12. Students in grades 9-12 participate in R-MA’s 91st Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) and have the option to participate in a flight program. R-MA is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and is located in Front Royal, VA.