LT’s CyberPatriots compete at national level

Two Lyons Township High School CyberPatriot teams recently competed in the national semifinals, with squads qualifying at the two highest levels - the Platinum Tier and the Gold Tier. There were nearly 130 Illinois teams, with more than 60 of them competing in the Open division, including LT. Nationally, there were 3,6630 teams in the Open division. Results for the national competition will be released in a few weeks, with the finals being held in Bethesda, MD in mid-March.

In the national semifinals, the Platinum Tier squad was required to secure four systems – Windows 10, Server 2016, Debian 8 and Ubuntu 16 – in addition to completing the Cisco Networking challenge. The Gold Tier squad had to secure three systems – Windows 10, Server 2016 and Debian 8 – as well as a Cisco Networking challenge customized for its tier.

Each event occurs during a six hour window. Squads access the challenges in virtualized environments around the world. LT’s squads met and competed in the South Campus Discovery Center.

LT’s squads arrived at the national semifinals after qualifying at the state level. At state, the Platinum Tier squads finished third and seventh in Illinois, with the third-place team advancing to the national semifinals. In a race that saw just 1.11 points separating second through fourth places (out of more than 200 points scored), LT’s Gold Tier squad finished fourth in the state and qualified for the national semifinals in its tier.

LT’s CyberPatriots Club is based around the national CyberPatriots organization founded by the Air Force Association as part of the National Youth Cyber Education Program. The focus is to expose students to methods and techniques for securing technology systems, protecting cyber assets and encouraging exploration of cyber security education and careers, which they achieve through the groups’ regular meetings and competitions.

LT Director of Technology and head sponsor Ed Tennant said, “The challenges of these semifinals were much, much harder than anything our squads experienced in previous competitions. They worked incredibly hard and should be proud of getting to this stage.”

Gold Squad competing in the Platinum Tier:

Colleen Sullivan, Senior (LaGrange)

Alex Stomberg, Senior (Western Springs)

Jack Hudetz, Senior (Western Springs)

Ian Doherty, Junior (LaGrange)

Brody Cassidy, Sophomore (Willow Springs)

Gray Squad competing in the Gold Tier:

Dan Sveda, Senior (Indian Head Park)

Gavin Monthye, Junior (Western Springs)

Owen McMillan, Sophomore (LaGrange)

Jimmy Kent, Sophomore (LaGrange)

Angela Angelovska, Freshman (Indian Head Park)

Marija Stojanoska, Freshman (Countryside)