Academy takes 1st place at regional cyber competition

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The Air Force Academy's cadet cyber competition team won the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, held at Regis University in Denver March 2-3.

This is the cadet team's second regional victory in the two years it has competed in CDCC events.

Competing for the Academy team were Cadets 1st Class Jordan Keefer, Geoff Pamerleau and Chris Shields and Cadets 2nd Class Frank Adkins, Josh Christman, Nathan Hart, Luke Jones and Mike Winstead.

Keefer, the team captain, described the competition as a "blue team" event. Teams had to secure a network that had previously been compromised, implement network security policies and maintain user networks.

"It condenses what would normally take months down to two days," said Keefer, a native of Manheim, Pa.

Teams from Regis University, Fort Hays State University, Colorado State University, the University of Colorado, the University of New Mexico and Kansas State University also competed.

"We were kind of worried" about the results, Keefer said. "No one knew what the score was going to be. We thought they were going to build suspense, starting with the third-place and second-place teams."

The Academy will compete in the National CDCC April 19-22 in San Antonio.

"The national competition is such a great experience that we're happy just to go, but winning is always fun, too," Keefer said.