There are five distinct programs of CyberPatriot:
The Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative (ESCEI) is a set of three interactive computer games that teach students in grades K-6 about personal safety and cyber threats.
The Cyber Education Literature Series (CELS) introduces even younger children to cyber safety, “Sarah the Cyber Hero” is the first book of its kind to address the dangers of cyber threats and what students can do to be prepared.
The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition is where middle and high school students compete in a virtual competition to identify vulnerabilities and secure computers in a virtual operating system. Students can earn national recognition and scholarship money.
AFA CyberCamps engages novice and advanced students that want to learn more about cybersecurity during the summer months. Organizations purchase 20 hours of curriculum and hosts camps in their area during designated camp sessions.
CyberGenerations: The Senior Citizens’ Cyber Safety Initiative, carefully crafted to address the cybersecurity needs of our nation’s senior citizens.
This video is 6:54 long.
Most of this video was filmed at National Finals.
It will give you a good idea of how exciting the competition is!
Click the logo in the middle of the slide to launch the CyberPatriot video in YouTube. If an advertisement starts, click the “Skip Ad > “ button in bottom right corner of video.
✰If link does not work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1l3QcHhnMI
The Open and All Service divisions compete in identical competitions, but teams are scored against only teams within their own divisions
The Middle School division competes in a competition that is slightly less challenging
Every team must have a coach and at least two competitors
Technical mentors and team assistant, though helpful, are optional. Teams are not required to have a mentor or assistant.
Any adult with an interested in providing students the opportunity to participate in CyberPatriot can be a coach.
Coaches do NOT need to have a background/skills in cybersecurity.
Coaches must be present for all online rounds of competition. If a coach cannot be present during a round, a change of coach is accepted at any point during the season.
Coaches needing help may contact technical mentors and/or team assistants through their volunteer dashboard
Mentors and team assistants can be added to a roster at any point during the competition season.
An explanation of how to request a fee waiver will be covered on a later slide.
A list of teams registered for the current competition season can be viewed on CyberPatriot’s website under Competition / Current Competition / Registered Teams
CyberPatriot strives to attract more females. Participation in CyberPatriot is 25% female, compared to the national average of 14% female for STEM programs.
Students who participated in CyberPatriot have gone on to study STEM fields at a rate of nearly 89%
Before anything else can happen with CyberPatriot, a team must register. Without registering, a team will not be able to access the various training and competition rounds.
April – early October = Registration
May – October = Training
Late October – January = Online Competition
March = National Finals Competition (for a very select number of teams)
The team creation deadline is the most important deadline for participating in the competition. If you do not create your team (or multiple teams) by October 2, you cannot compete in the year’s competition
Competitor registration and payment deadlines come after. Do not worry about paying or registering competitors right away.
Note that the blue notes on the form are guidelines. These notes are not warnings that something is incorrect with your entry.
Reminder: Coaches may register up to five (5) teams
Teams registered to an individual may vary in division and organization, so long as proper verification officials are designated for each team.
Verification Official Guidelines:
Cannot be yourself
Must be school administrator or similar position if competing outside of school
If you have more than one team, you will see an additional information box for each team.
Team number: Always provide your team number when contacting the CyberPatriot staff.
Organization Name / Nickname: If your team wins a state or semifinal award, you’ll be sent a certificate the contains your team’s organization name and nickname. This information is pulled directly from the registration system, so please check that the organization name and nickname are correct (spelling, capitalization, etc.)
Organization Type: Selection determines your division placement. Errors in organization type result in competing in the wrong division. Please ensure the correct organization type is selected for each of your teams.
Awaiting verification – If your verification official is not receiving the emails (often blocked by school servers) please have them contact the CyberPatriot staff directly at info@uscyberpatriot.org
They can provide a brief statement of approval (containing coach’s name, organization name, and team number). CyberPatriot staff will accept this as verification.
Do not get Awaiting Approval confused with Awaiting Verification. Awaiting Approval means you are waiting on the CyberPatriot staff to approve your team. Your verification official is off the hook at this point, because he/she has already verified the team.
You cannot submit payment until your team has been approved. If you do not see the option to pay or view the invoice, it’s because your team has not been approved.
You cannot submit a waiver request until your team has been approved. If you do not see the option request a fee waiver, it’s because your team has not been approved.
If you are requesting a waiver based on Title I status, you must send a follow-up email to info@uscyberpatriot.org with a letter of proof. The letter should: 1. be on school letterhead,2. Contain stats/proof of Title I status for the current school year (% free or reduced lunch)3. be signed by a member of the school’s administration
If you requesting a waiver for an all-girls team, CyberPatriot will not waive the fee until we see that the competitors have been registered to the team roster.
When paying by credit card, DO NOT CLICK SUBMIT MORE THAN ONCE! This will result in multiple charges to your credit card. The system may be slow at times, please be patient.
Credit card payments are also accepted over the phone: 877-885-5716
If paying by check, please allow a few additional days for the check to be processed by AFA’s finance department. The CyberPatriot staff does not mark teams as ‘paid’ until the check is processed by the finance department.
Remember, you cannot pay until your team is verified and approved. Therefore, in order to pay before the deadline, you must be verified and approved by that time.
Competitors ARE ELIGIBLE to compete with a pending status.
While we would prefer students compete the questionnaire, a fully registered status is not required for competitors to compete.
The system will not allow you to move competitors between two full rosters. If trying to move competitors between two full rosters, either.1. Delete a competitor from the roster you are trying to move a competitor to, move the competitor, then add a competitor back to the team with only five competitors2. Contact the CyberPatriot program office for assistance in moving competitions
You do not have the option to add a mentor until your team has been verified and approved.
The CyberPatriot staff does not assign mentors to teams. Coaches are able to contact mentors on their own. Unfortunately the CyberPatriot cannot control whether or not a mentor responds to your message.