First CyberPatriot program team in middle Tennessee recognized

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  AEDC Commander, Col. Raymond Toth, recently presented Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) coins to the Coffee County High School (CCHS) Air Force JROTC cadets for being the first CyberPatriot team in middle Tennessee.

Arnold AFB's STEM program has supported the high school by providing three loaner laptops for the CyberPatriot team to learn and compete in state and nationally organized programs, to inspire high school students toward careers in cyber security or other STEM disciplines critical to our nation's future. The CyberPatriot program provides training "target images" of Operating Systems (OS) configurations for cadets to practice fixing vulnerabilities.

"The cadets have learned how to properly secure several types of [computer] operating system vulnerabilities by the use of various tools, from creating strong password authentication of user accounts to understanding OS services and effectively using system event viewers to determine how to fix and correct provided target images that are miss-configured," said Michael Glennon, AEDC's technical director of engineering and technical management. "Each system's vulnerability corrected by the cadets is scored and recorded as students compete against other cadets within the state and nationwide."

The cadets have taken part in their first competition and are looking forward to doing so again in the future.

"The goal of the program is to make learning fun, and promote Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics interest in our local high schools," said Jere Matty, AEDC's Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) educational outreach specialist. "Arnold AFB supports the CyberPatriot program by providing two mentors to CCHS, Michael Glennon and Cameron Liner, an Air Force data acquisition and instrumentation engineer with AEDC's Test and Base Communications Branch and CyberPatriot mentor, as well as laptops from our STEM Lending Library."

Lt. Col. Philip Bailey, CCHS Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Senior Aerospace Science Instructor (AFJROTC SASI), said, "The cadets and I are really grateful for the CyberPatriot [program] support from AEDC. We would not be able to participate in the program without them."

CyberPatriot V was established by the Air Force Association. The Northrop Grumman Foundation is the sponsor for the 5th phase of the program, CyberPatriot V. The organizations founding partners are the Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) and the Center for Infrastructure Assurance & Security (CIAS) at the University of Texas-San Antonio.