Many teams were able to successfully compete and displayed exceptional performance. Those teams will receive a “bye” for the second round of competition and will be advanced directly to the third round. Due to exceptionally high server demand, technical challenges impaired some teams’ ability to compete.

“This was a wonderful round of competition for many competitors, and we congratulate them. We know some teams experienced frustrations due to technical problems, but our industry partners are working to resolve the problems. We are absolutely committed to making the next round of competition a better experience,” said Bernie Skoch, CyberPatriot Commissioner. “To give everyone the opportunity to compete, we are advancing all teams to the second round. We believe this program is a great learning instrument and want everyone to have an opportunity to participate.”

CyberPatriot is the premier high school cybersecurity competition in the nation produced by the Air Force Association (AFA), a nonprofit organization headquartered near Washington, D.C. This unique competition was designed to give students a hands-on learning experience in cybersecurity and inspire students to consider science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields in their studies.

In this two-track competition, teams have registered from public, private, parochial and home schools in the Open Division and JROTC units of all Services and Civil Air Patrol squadrons filled the All-Service Division. In all, more than 660 teams have registered to participate this year.

Throughout CyberPatriot, teams of five, with an approved coach, race against both the clock and their opponents as they must find and correct vulnerabilities in a virtual network. Teams are scored according to how quickly and effectively they established and maintained secure networks.

The top teams will continue to compete in a series of online rounds to determine the finalists for scholarship money and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. and the Championship Round at the Gaylord National Convention Center in April 2011.

CyberPatriot is presented by Northrop Grumman, with founding partners SAIC and the CIAS at the University of Texas-San Antonio. More can be learned about CyberPatriot at http://www.uscyberpatriot.org.