Nasis Middle maintains its winning ways with another cybersecurity competition victory

They’ve done it again!

Nashwaaksis Middle School’s two cybersecurity teams—the Grade 8 Cyber Dragons and the Grade 6 Firewall Fighters—placed first and second, respectively, in the Information and Communications Technology Council’s (ICTC) CyberTitan VII National Finals cybersecurity competition, held May 8-9 at Waterloo University in Ontario.

The winning team’s members will each receive a $600 Amazon gift card.
The Cyber Dragons and a team called the Yottabyters won those same respective accolades in last year’s competition.

Both the CyberDragons and Firewall Fighters were two of 13 finalist teams to make the national competition after six months of competitions against 196 Canadian CyberTitan teams and various international teams affiliated with the U.S. Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot cybersecurity program. The two Nashwaaksis Middle School teams participated virtually from the National Research Council building on the University of New Brunswick’s Fredericton campus.

This year, students worked to solve a fictional cybersecurity threat at an airport.
“Airports are an important place to keep safe and our students in CyberTitan VII were ‘hired’ to do that,” said Sheena Bolton, ICTC’s National Director of CyberTitan.

“[The teams] did things like hardening Windows and Linux computers by fixing misconfigured security policies and generally reducing users’ options to what is strictly necessary for them.”

Teams also worked to maintain an automated baggage sorter connected to a baggage tracking system, said Bolton.

The student team members all have a genuine passion for coding and cybersecurity, which is essential, said team coach and Technology Education teacher Gary Gautreau.

“I learned so much while competing in CyberTitan, and I am hoping to continue learning cybersecurity in high school, and eventually as a job.”

Grade 8 student Caleb Jeffries, the cyber Dragons team captain

“This club’s not for everybody,” said Gautreau. “And when I open it up for new students, I pretty much tell the kids ‘this is a lot of work. I’m not going to make you do it, but I’m here for you if you choose to do it.’”

And Gautreau’s up-front approach seems to have worked. Nashwaaksis Middle School teams have won the CyberTitan competition’s middle school division five out of the last seven years.

“When I recruit, I try to recruit students whose work ethic and interest meets the needs of the competition,” he said. “This is an elite group. They’re doing university-level stuff.”

The students’ dedication shows in their results, Gautreau said. That dedication includes spending an hour at lunch and an hour and a half most days after school since September working on practice cybersecurity scenarios provided by CyberPatriot.

“I learned so much while competing in CyberTitan, and I am hoping to continue learning cybersecurity in high school, and eventually as a job,” said Caleb Jeffries, the Cyber Dragons’ team captain and a Grade 8 student. “Thanks to our coach, Mr. Gautreau, our mentor, Mr. [Griffin] Higgins [a cybersecurity software developer at the Canadian Institute for Cybersecurity], and everyone who helped organize the competition. I can’t wait to continue learning cybersecurity in high school.”

In addition to winning in the middle school division, the Cyber Dragons are ranked seventh nationally, while the Firewall Fighters are ranked tenth.

“When my team won the nationals, the only thing going through my head was ‘yes, yes, we won!’,” said Grade 8 student Jneid El Jneid, who describes joining the Cyber Dragons as “probably one of the best decisions I have made.”

Published May 22, 2024

Last modified June 04, 2024, 2:02 pm