Holmdel High Cyber Security Team Finishes Second In State

HOLMDEL, NJ — The Holmdel High School Cyber Security Club made an impressive showing in the Northrop Grumman CyberPatriot competition, held from February 9-11.

The Holmdel High team of Cyrus Majd, Jonathan Marty, Michael Dasaro, Jerome Li and Andrew Cornelio performed admirably against some very challenging teams from across the nation. After rising above some fierce competition to qualify for the semi-final round, the team scored second highest in New Jersey and in the top 4 percent of all the teams that started the competition.

“While they were not one of the 12 teams that qualified for the finals, the dedication that this team made to obtain the skills they needed to compete at such a high level still has me in awe," said team advisor Steve Lelivelt. "Congratulations once again to for a job well done.”

The Northrop Grumman competition puts teams of high school and middle school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals tasked with managing the network of a small company. In the rounds of competition, teams are given a set of virtual images that represent operating systems and are tasked with finding cybersecurity vulnerabilities within the images and hardening the system while maintaining critical services in a six-hour period. Teams compete for the top placement within their state and region, and the top teams in the nation earn all-expenses paid trips to Baltimore, MD for the National Finals Competition where they can earn national recognition and scholarship money.