Cadets Renew Cybersecurity Quest for Greatness

By Cadet 1st Lt Aleksey Mezokh
Public Affairs Cadet
Pegasus Composite Squadron, Texas Wing

Civil Air Patrol cadets at Pegasus Composite Squadron recently concluded their participation in the CyberPatriot XII challenge, the national annual youth cyber defense competition. Team Pegasus competed for the first time in three years and fielded two teams for the competition, a high school team in the “all-service” division and a middle school team in the middle school division. Both teams made it past the first and second rounds of the competition, advancing to the state championship in their respective categories. Now, after a successful run, Team Pegasus is in training for CyberPatriot XIII, which will take place next fall.

CyberPatriot is the Air Force Association’s program to educate America’s youth about cybersecurity and its importance in the digital age, as well as to motivate participants to pursue a career in cybersecurity or another field in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics. The program is targeted toward older youth, although there are programs even for elementary students. The center of the program includes a national competition, now in its twelfth iteration with approximately 6,500 teams competing across the country.

Team Pegasus is rebuilding its former glory in this discipline step by step. Having started in CyberPatriot III (2010-2011), the team gradually improved to become one of the best teams in Texas. In the 2015-2016 cycle, CyberPatriot VIII, Team Pegasus placed second at the state competition. However, in the years following, Team Pegasus only competed in the next iteration of the competition. Civil Air Patrol 1st Lt. Chris Coovrey hopes to guide the effort to rebuild one of the strongest cybersecurity teams in Texas.

Team Pegasus today consists of five cadets and in October 2019 the cadets competed in the first round of CyberPatriot XII. The challenges included finding vulnerabilities in a given program and correcting them, as well as fixing three images and securing files from possible attacks in a period of six hours. Overall, the two teams scored more than 100 points with the middle school team gathering the most. Both teams moved on to the second round which took place November 15-17, 2019.

“For me personally, I just got into cyber training, having done the Cyber Defense Training Academy earlier this year,” Cadet 2nd Lt. Greyson Craig said. “Now, at the squadron, we participate in a virtual meeting every week to train for the competition,” he added. “I think we’ll do better, but we’ve still got a long way to go.”

In the second round held in December 2019, Team Pegasus capitalized on its momentum and improved their score, qualifying both teams for the state championship. The cadets worked on their hardest challenges yet and although neither team made it to the semifinals, all of the cadets were very happy with their results.

“I’m so proud of them,” Coovrey said. “I had really low expectations because it’s our first year, the building year, and we were competing with fully established teams. Even though we only started training in September, I am very impressed with their progress. The big picture here is that they learn about cybersecurity; it’s a vital thing for our country, and they’re getting a very broad understanding of cybersecurity. It can only get better from here.”