CyberPatriot: National Youth Cyber Education Program

CyberPatriot, or the National Youth Cyber Education Program, is a cybersecurity competition for middle schoolers and high schoolers in which competitors aim to secure vulnerable computers against potential threats. Competitions revolve around the Windows and Linux operating systems, and Cisco Packet Tracer, a computer network simulator.

We encourage you to join the CyberPatriot program at your school, or start a program if there isn't one already. Feel free to email us (cyberclasspres at gmail) if you have questions or need help getting started.

We also run the CyberPatriot clubs at Pacific Trails Middle School and Canyon Crest Academy. If you plan on coming to one of these schools and want to join, more information can be found here.

CTFs

CTFs, or "Capture the Flag" competitions, are challenging team competitions that we encourage you to try.

During these competitions, the goal is to try finding a "flag" that is hidden within a computer. A combination of problem solving, coding, and hacking knowledge as well as general familiarity with computers will be needed to reach the flag. There are a variety of categories including Web Exploitation, Forensics, Reversing, Cryptography, and Binary Exploitation, also known as "pwn".

A good place to start trying CTFs is picoCTF . It is a beginner friendly annual CTF competition but the problems are open year-round and can be found here: https://picoctf.com/.