CyberPatriot continues to thrive because of the support from a variety of parties -- coaches, parents, students, sponsors. The list is long. But CyberPatriot would never have ever achieved the growth it has without the support of a key founding partner:
The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) at the University of Texas - San Antonio
CIAS was one of the founding members of the CyberPatriot Program. In fact, Dr. Keith Harrison, Dwayne Williams, and Dr. Greg White were all at the first CyberPatriot event. By 2012, CyberPatriot had outgrown its original competition system. The number of teams participating in CyberPatriot was well over 1,000 and a new system was needed. Dr. Greg White and his team at CIAS were asked to develop a competition system that could easily scale to a large number of teams. Dr. White wrote the original CONOPS while on active duty assignment for the Air Force as part of the USAF Reserves. Dwayne Williams led the CIAS planning effort and with the help of Dr. Keith Harrison created the CyberPatriot Competition System (CCS), which is now used in all competition images. Dr. Harrison is truly the mastermind behind the software these days, as he is the primary coder.
CCS made its debut during CP-V and exceeded expectations. It gave the competitors near real-time scoring feedback and a public scoreboard, making the competition much more interactive. By 2014 it was a full-up competition system using Windows and Linux-based systems. The system has continued to keep pace with CyberPatriot's growing needs and the needs of sister competitions in Europe and Australia. Dr. White and his team have advanced the program allowing for red team activity and competition injects. "It's been a privilege to be part of CyberPatriot for all these years," explained Dr. White. "While we knew it was going to be popular when we started, no one expected the kind of growth we've seen over the past decade. The CIAS is really looking forward to working with AFA and seeing where CyberPatriot goes in the next ten years."
CIAS has also played key roles in the development of AFA CyberCamp curriculum, the Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative modules, and a promotional demo that allows prospective coaches and competitors to get the look and feel of the CyberPatriot competition without having to download any software or virtual images.
The competition has evolved tremendously since its first proof of concept season in 2009.
Take a look through the years to see how the program has grown, and to recap which teams came out on top as National Champions!
