Cyber Patriot Mentors
Program Overview

© 2019 Air Force Association
• The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition
(“Cyber Patriot”) is a national tournament where
middle and high school students vie through
divisional virtual competitions to identify
vulnerabilities and secure computers in a virtual
operating system.
• Students can earn national recognition and
scholarship money through the competition
• Teams are managed by Coaches and educated by
Mentors
What is Cyber Patriot
1

© 2019 Air Force Association
All Service Division
Open to high school students in:
• Air Force / Army / Marine Corps / Navy JROTC units
• Civil Air Patrol squadrons
• U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps units
2
Middle School Division
Open to middle school age groups:
• Public / private / parochial / magnet / charter schools, home
schools, scouting units, boys and girls clubs, 4H clubs, Civil Air
Patrol, etc.
Competition Divisions
Open Division
Open to high school age groups:
• Public / private / parochial / magnet / charter schools, home
schools, scouting units, boys and girls clubs, 4H clubs, etc.

© 2019 Air Force Association
Cyber Patriot is a Hit
3
660
1,014 1,224
1,566
2,300
3,300
4,400
5,000
6,500
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
CPI - CPII CPIII -
2011
CPIV -
2012
CPV -
2013
CPVI -
2014
CPVII -
2015
CPVIII -
2016
CPIX -
2017
CPX -
2018
CPXI -
2019
CyberPatriotTeams
National Cyber Patriot Team Growth
Competition
opened to
Public/Private
High Schools
in 2010
San Antonio’s
ITSA wins the
National
Championship
of Cyber
Patriot

© 2019 Air Force Association
San Antonio Participation in CP
4
21
36
55
85
115
198
258
298
317
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
CPI - CPII CPIII -
2011
CPIV -
2012
CPV -
2013
CPVI -
2014
CPVII -
2015
CPVIII -
2016
CPIX -
2017
CPX -
2018
CPXI -
2019
San Antonio Cyber Patriot Team Growth
National
Champion
4 Teams to
Nationl Finals
Top 4
Teams in
Texas
3 Teams to
National
Finals
2 Teams to
National
Finals
2 Teams to
National
Finals

© 2019 Air Force Association
Team Structure and Definitions
5
COACH COMPETITORS TECHNICAL MENTOR
or TEAM ASSISTANT
• Coach: Adult member of the organization
– Teacher, parent, volunteer, etc.
• Competitor: Youth member of the organization
• Technical Mentor: Offers technical support to team
• Team Assistant: Offers non-technical support to team

© 2019 Air Force Association
Team Structure
6
COACH
Coach: Adult member of the organization
– Teacher, parent, volunteer, etc.
– Must receive approval from organization
administrator
• May register up to five (5) teams
• Responsible for competitor safety and team’s
adherence to competition rules
• Sole point of contact for competition-related
correspondence
• Coordinates the competitors and helps set-up for
the rounds
• Does NOT need to be expert in cybersecurity

© 2019 Air Force Association
Team Structure
7
Competitors: Youth members of the
organization
– Must all be part of a common organization
• Must be registered to a team roster
– May only compete with one team
• During rounds: Up to five (5) active
competitors, one (1) substitute
COMPETITORS

© 2019 Air Force Association
Team Structure
8
TECHNICAL
MENTOR
Technical Mentors: Adult volunteers who offer
technical assistance to team
– Must be 18 years of age or older
• Register with CyberPatriot and undergo
background check
• No limit to number of mentors per team
Team Assistants: Adult volunteers who offer
non-technical/administrative support to team
– Must be 18 years of age or older
• Register with CyberPatriot and undergo
background check
• No limit to number of assistants per team
TEAM ASSISTANT

© 2019 Air Force Association
Cisco networks:
- Configuration/Setup
- Network Operations
- Network Security
Common Software/Open Source Software:
- VMWare
- Antivirus (free versions - AVG/Avira/etc)
- Notepad++
- 7zip
- SysInternals Suite of tools
- Anti-Malware (Malware Bytes or similar)
- WireShark
- Others
Mentors Skills (Examples)
9

© 2019 Air Force Association
Operating systems:
- Windows Operating Systems (going as far back as Windows 7)
- Windows Server versions (2003/2008/Exchange/AD)
- Linux variants (BSD/Ubuntu/Fedora/etc)
Students work with an OS image that is corrupted, vulnerable and has weaknesses:
- It is their challenge to know the operating system(s) well enough to look
for the common vulnerabilities
- Correct those vulnerabilities
- Be able to find others that are not as known or pronounced
Digital forensics:
- Knowledge
- Identification of data
- Recovery
- Investigation
- Analysis
Mentor Skills (Examples)
10

© 2019 Air Force Association
Time Commitment
11
• Amount of time devoted to CyberPatriot
depends on the team
– Some teams meet once a month, others once or
twice a week
• Recommended time commitment:
– One (1) or two (2) meetings per week (1-2 hours)
– Practice tasks assigned to competitors and
completed outside of meetings
– Students learning one topic and teaching to
teammates

© 2019 Air Force Association
CP-XII (2019-2020) Sequence
12

© 2019 Air Force Association
• New Mentors must create a volunteer account
before registering for competition
• Visit www.uscyberpatriot.org
– Click ‘Register’
– Select ‘Team or Volunteer Registration’
Volunteer Registration
13

© 2019 Air Force Association
• Complete all
fields on form
• Click ‘Register’
– You will receive a
confirmation email,
but you can log in as
soon as the form has
been completed
– Check spam/junk
folder if email is not
received
Volunteer Registration
14

© 2019 Air Force Association
System Search to Find a Registered Mentor
15
Find a Mentor
• Approved teams have the option to contact technical
mentors and team assistants in their area should they need
additional help with training
• Click 'Find Mentor' to search for volunteers.
• There is no limit to the number of mentors/assistants helping a team

© 2019 Air Force Association
• Online Modules
– PDF modules that provide entry level explanation
of skills needed for competition
– Recommended starting point for training
– Available to coaches, technical mentors, and team
assistants on Volunteer Dashboard
Training Materials
16
Available Year-Round

© 2019 Air Force Association
• Questions? Interest? Query Dan Cruz
(dcruz@CyberTexas.org) for more information.
Remember -- Interest is not Commitment
• The area’s teams sometimes need only specific or
temporary expertise. You could be part of a general
pool of Mentors
• Middle Schools are also competing. They may have a
more rudimentary need of expertise but possess the
same level of enthusiasm
• Pass the word. Others may be interested in helping.
Every bit of support helps the San Antonio region’s
teams
Next Steps
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