Tate Takes Top High School Honors In CyberThon 2017

February 13, 2017

More than 140 local students from dozens of schools across Northwest Florida participated in CyberThon 2017 recently, with Tate High School taking home the top honors in the high school division.

New for CyberThon 2017 was a “capture the flag” style gameplay carried out on the FacebookCTF platform customized specifically for this event. Teams worked to win points on the game board while completing challenges on a computer network that included a simulated online financial system. Dubbed “First Federation Credit Union,” the fully functional banking environment was designed by Premier Sponsor Navy Federal Credit Union. Teams used software tools including Security Onion and Splunk to monitor suspicious network activity and complete gameplay challenges.

Control of the CyberThon leaderboard changed hands multiple times during the two-day competition, with teams from Pensacola State College, Pine Forest High School, Tate High School, and UWF all taking turns in the top spot. In the end, however, teams from UWF and Tate High School emerged as winners in the college and high school divisions.

A Tate High School team led by Kevin Schmidt took the top spot among high schools while scoring more points overall before penalties than any team in the event. Tate High swept both top spots among high schools, with a team led by Michelle Ward claiming second place.

In support of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission statement that “Homeland Security Begins with Hometown Security,” the three-day event also included keynote addresses on cybersecurity trends from leading experts in the cyber industry.

Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News