Learn & Prepare
The CyberTexas Foundation continuously seeks for new CyberPatriot information to keep you up to date.
Intro to Mentoring
Coaches & Mentors Rule Book
Welcome to the CyberPatriot 17 competition season and thank you for taking the time to review the CyberPatriot 17 Rules Book.
All registered CyberPatriot participants, including coaches, technical mentors, team assistants, and competitors, are bound by the rules and procedures published in this document.
Coaches Tools
Cyber Patriot Mentors Program Overview
The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition 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.
Training Materials
Training Material Overview
Note: all teams are required to have 64-bit, host computers and operating systems to compete successfully in cyberpatriot x.
Each competition round has two challenges for which teams will need to train
Network Security Challenge (Images)
The main goal of every round of competition is to improve the security of one or more virtual machine images. In the past, teams have been tasked with:
- Maintaining and hardening critical services
- Fixing vulnerabilities
- Removing malware from the systems
- Answering forensics questions
In the past, CyberPatriot has used these images during the online rounds:
- Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
- Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2016
- Ubuntu 14, Ubuntu 16, Debian 7
Teams do not need to have any of these specific operating systems installed directly on their computers. Rather, these images are played using VMware Player software. More information on the technical requirements for using this free software can be found on the Technical Specifications page.
Training for the competition, in addition to the training materials, is provided in three UNSCORED rounds:
- Exhibition Round(s) – Unscored images for Recruiting and Training
- Training Round – Answer keys provided with images for guided training
- Practice Round – Unscored images for team practice
For help playing a virtual machine image and starting a round, please view this instructional video: https://youtu.be/4UveDN7xn9I
How can I prepare?
Training materials are available through the volunteer dashboard and through Cisco Networking Academy on the AFA CyberPatriot website. Instructions for competition round preparation are emailed directly to coaches prior to each round.
- For a general overview of how to prepare for a round, click here
- For an in-depth explanation of how the competition works, click here
- For a full list of competition hardware and software requirements, click here
- For the full competition rules book, click here
