The Air Force Association, Northrop Grumman, the ICS-CIAS, and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) have teamed to create the largest and fastest-growing high school cyber defense competition. From a concept paper less than two years ago, CyberPatriot began with a February 2009 demonstration and immediately went nationwide for the 2009-10 school year competition, staging the largest High School Cyber Defense Competition ever conducted. The next step, Full Nationwide Deployment, has been made possible by a generous grant from Northrop Grumman Corporation, who has committed to significant multiyear funding and extensive in-kind support for the initiative. Through Northrop Grumman’s support, the program will reach many thousands of students annually.

CyberPatriot III begins in the spring 2010 to allow coach preparation over the summer. A “two-division” approach was chosen to attract both the college prep computer science students in the “Open Division” and the more diverse audience numbering over 500,000 in the nation’s JROTC detachments of all services. Both Divisions will proceed through a similar, but distinct, series of online training and qualification rounds to select finalists for the same D.C. area in-person championship at the 2011 Air Force Association CyberFutures Conference.

The Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (ICS-CIAS) at the University of Texas at San Antonio, creator of the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, is a Founding Partner of CyberPatriot, as is Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), who provides the platform for the competition with their patent-pending commercial cyber defense trainer, Cyber NEXS. Strategic Partners General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GD AIS), Raytheon, and Microsoft have also pledged significant multiyear support for the program, and this unique combination of commercial, government, and nonprofit expertise has produced a model for rapid expansion.