Putnam Civil Air Patrol Cadets Take First Place in CyberPatriot State Round Competition

CARMEL, N.Y. - Jan. 26, 2022 - PRLog -- Cadets from the Putnam County Composite Squadron recently won State's 1st Place Award in the Platinum Tier in the XIV season of CyberPatriot – the Air Force Association's (AFA) National Youth Cyber Defense Competition.

Led by Coach Second Lieutenant Craig Treco, Mentors Second Lieutenant Bruce Geller and Senior Member Xiaoyan Shao, the team of cadets, Airman First Class Eric Song, Airman Michael Strang and Airman Jacob Leggiero excelled in the CyberPatriot XII State Round held in December, demonstrating teamwork, critical thinking, and technical skills needed for a successful career in cybersecurity. In addition to the State's 1st Place Award in the Platinum Tier in the State Round, the team's performance earned it a spot in the Semifinal Round which will take place in January.

The AFA CyberPatriot competition challenges teams of high school and middle school students to find and fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities in virtual operating systems and to understand how to create and secure computer networks. Using a proprietary competition system, teams are scored on how secure they make the system.

For cadets Eric Song and Michael Strang, this is their first competition while Jacob Leggiero is a returning competitor. All the cadets receive weekly training in cybersecurity including Windows, Linux, and networking to prepare for the competition rounds.

Each competition round lasts six hours and the cadets work together to find the vulnerabilities in the virtual images provided, take a networking quiz, and create a secure virtual network. Top teams advance through two scoring rounds and the State Round to qualify for the Semifinal Round. The top scoring teams in the Semifinal round will advance to the in-person National Finals Competition in Bethesda, MD this March.

The Putnam County Composite Squadron has been competing in the AFA CyberPatriot Competition since the 2014-2015 Competition and is open to any cadet in the Putnam County Composite Squadron and nearby squadrons interested in learning how to combat cyber threats by identifying vulnerabilities and securing networks.

For information on how to join the Putnam Country Composite Squadron team, please contact Major Elena MacDermant (Commander) at elenamac@aol.com.

Information on the AFA CyberPatriot Competition is available at www.uscyberpatriot.org or from the CyberPatriot staff at info@uscyberpatriot.org.

Visit www.CAP.NEWS or www.GoCivilAirPatrol.com for more information.