U.S. Military Academy cadets from the Cadet Cyber Team and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) Department represented West Point in an inter-academy National Security Agency (NSA) Cyber Exercise competition virtually and in-person at the Maritime Conference Center from March 31-April 2 in Linthicum Heights, Maryland.
The NSA Cyber Exercise consisted of four modules covering forensics, cryptography, data analysis and cyber policy. The exercise culminated in an attack-defend-style “Cyber Combat Exercise” (CCX) in which cadets defended their own systems while simultaneously attacking simulated adversaries, including racing to exploit vulnerable servers in short “King of the Hill” rounds.
The exercises included a LoRaWAN wireless hardware challenge where cadets had to reprogram a Long-Range 915Mhz wireless transceiver to interact with a server.
Each school sent three teams of five cadets per event, except for the policy module where each school fielded a single team of five. The entire team consisted of 26 cadets from the Cyber Team and the EECS Department.
The three-day competition kicked off Monday and Tuesday with two modules per day, while Wednesday was an all-day “Cyber Combat Exercise.” West Point participated remote only on Monday and Tuesday, and sent one team forward to represent the in-person team on Wednesday for the CCX.
West Point placed second overall, beating U.S. Naval Academy (USNA) and U.S. Coast Guard Academy (USCGA). However, the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) took first-place overall. Additionally, the USMA team won first place in the Cyber Policy module and second place in Forensics and Cryptography.
The schools represented in this year's NCX include:
Additionally, various NSA development programs and a Cyber National Mission Force team competed in a separate unranked bracket.