High School teams from across Michigan came to the 2018 North American International Cyber Summit (NAICS) at Cobo Center in Detroit last month for the finals of the High School Cyber Challenge, a cybersecurity competition created by Gov. Rick Snyder.
The Governor’s High School Cyber Challenge is run and facilitated by Merit Network and the Michigan Cyber Range, in partnership with the State of Michigan. Event sponsors included AmeriNet, Juniper Networks and ADVA Optical Networking.
The 10 finalist teams, comprised of three students each, completed challenges designed to test their knowledge of information technology and cybersecurity. The competition scores were based on the number of completed virtual challenges and highest demonstrated mastery of essential cybersecurity skills. The winning teams received trophies during lunch at the NAICS on Oct. 29.
Winning Teams:
- 1st Place: Cadillac High School – Cyber Vikings
- 2nd Place: Marquette Senior High School – Trsm MSHS
- 3rd Place: Okemos High School – Chiefs
To earn a spot in the finals of the Cyber Challenge, the teams competed online in the first round, which was held Oct. 1-4. Each day focused on a different topic, such as networking, programming, hacking and operating systems, and the challenges consisted of story driven multiple-choice questions. Round 1 was open-book style, in which students were encouraged to scour the internet to answer the questions. Approximately 223 teams comprised of 650 students participated in the challenge from schools located across the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan.
Merit Network, Inc. is a non-profit corporation owned and governed by Michigan’s public universities. Merit owns and operates America’s longest-running regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan’s public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained on the forefront of research and education networking expertise and services. Merit provides high-performance networking and IT solutions to Michigan’s public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, health care, and other non-profit organizations.