1. CyberPatriots 2016
Student Handbook

2. ILP Prerequisites to Compete
Active student member of BDPA and or ILP
100% participation all in scheduled activities unless excused
Complete all assigned training in the classroom and online
Student must be committed to the full scope of program offerings

3. Team Participation Requirements
Team Coach to act as the administrative lead of a CyberPatriot team
Two computers with Internet connectivity
Two to six Competitors either consisting entirely of high school or middle students (sixth student if applicable is a substitute and cannot assist the active competitors)
At least one industry professional, student, academic, or otherwise IT-experienced adult as a Technical Mentor (optional but highly suggested)
One team Assistant to support with transportation, snacks, and setup (optional)

4. Competition Tiers and Advancement
The purpose of AFA State Certificate is to recognize the top three teams in each state or area.
The purpose of Regional Certificate is to recognize the top three teams in each region
All Open Division teams can participate in these rounds. A team's performance in Round 1 does not affect its ability to compete in Round 2. Teams missing Round 1 can participate in Round 2.
Team scores from Rounds 1 and 2 are added together to determine placement in one of the three tiers.

5. CyberPatriots Open Division (Any High School)
Timelines for 2016 – 2017 Season
Nov
Oct
Dec
Feb
Jan
Mar
Apr
Training
Oct 10 – Nov 5
ILP-STEM
National Practice
Mar
Practice
Oct
Round 1
Nov
Round 2
Dec
State
Jan
Reginal
Feb 3 - 5
National
Apr 2 - 6
CyberPatriots Open Division (Any High School)
Team registration closes on October 5th Competitor registration closes on November 2nd

6. Competition Preparation
Teams should start training for competition as soon as they can before the first round. Updated training materials are on the ILP-STEM portal The completion of this training material is required to compete. The Technical Mentors shall provide more in-depth training on the topics at the Wilmington University lab sessions.
Coaches and Technical Mentors shall make sure that the team has the hardware, software, transportation, facilities, and network capabilities​ required to compete successfully.
About a week before the competition begins, the CyberPatriot Program Office sends an with round instructions and links to download the virtual machine images (operating systems that can be played on top of other operating systems). These files are very large and shall be downloaded by the Coach well before a team is ready to compete. The Coach shall also verify that the downloads were successful before the round begins.

7. During the Competition
On the morning of the Friday of the competition weekend, the Coach receives an with the password to extract the virtual machine images from their downloads. At this point, they can be loaded in VMware Player to begin competing.
When the images are opened, teams are prompted to enter a Team ID. This is a ten-digit alphanumeric code that is assigned to teams and delivered to them along with the extraction password.
The goal of every CyberPatriot competition is to find and fix vulnerabilities in the images. These images range from simple to very complex. Some rounds also include networking challenges in the form of quizzes and Cisco Packet Tracer activities.
When teams fix a vulnerability that is being checked, they receive points. If they take an action that makes a system less secure, they lose points. Teams can checked their progress on their score report page.
A live scoreboard is available for teams to see how they stack up against others in the country.
​​CyberPatriot staff is available to answer technical support questions during the round by chat​ and by phone at during peak competition hours. Instructions for accessing the tech support chat are sent to teams at the beginning of each round. Teams may not ask questions about vulnerabilities during the technical chats

8. After the Competition
All virtual machine images should be deleted after the round is over to maintain the integrity of the competition.
CyberPatriot staff reviews all the scores following the competition and releases the official scores and standings to team Coach within a week after the round is over.

9. Technical Specifications
Hardware Requirements
​1 Ghz Intel x86 compatible processor
2+ Ghz dual-core or better with virtualization extensions​ recommended
4 GB of RAM
2 GB may work for some older images, but will cause host systems to slow down when larger operating systems are used
30 GB of free disk space
XGA (1024x768) or higher display
Software Requirements
Windows 2000 or later, OS X or later, Linux /2.6.4 or later
WinMD5
Used for verifying the checksum of the images to ensure that they have been fully downloaded
Install guide
​7-Zip
Used for unzipping the images after they have been downloaded
​​​VMware Player​ (for Windows or GNU/Linux) or VMware Fusion (for OS X)

10. Useful Links
Tier and Advancement details link - advancement
ILP-STEM CyberPatriot Courses –