Let’s Get Technical

New club allows students to compete in realistic tech situations

Lets+Get+Technical

Trey Trumbo, Staff Writer

Piper introduces a new club to the High School and it’s very different from the other clubs around it. Cyber Defense club is a CyberPatriots- The National Youth Cyber Education Program team led by teacher Carol Grubbs.

The National Youth Cyber Defense Competition puts teams of high school students in the position of newly hired IT professionals. They’re tasked with managing the network of a small company.

“I joined because I’m interested in engineering so I thought it would be fun to join the team. So far it has proven to be,” said sophomore Fiona Maxville

In the rounds of competition, teams are given images that represent operating systems. They are then tasked to find cybersecurity vulnerabilities with those images. Once that is completed, they harden the system while maintaining critical services. Teams compete for top placements in their regions and state. The top teams in the nation earn paid trips to Baltimore, Maryland for the National Finals Competition. There they can earn national recognition and scholarship money.

“We are grateful to the Optimist Club for providing financial support for us to start our first team,” Grubbs said.

The Cyber Defense Pirates have completed the practice round and will participate in their first competitive round on November 3.

“I am very excited for what is to come because it is becoming more important in our society today,”  Junior Tyler Thomas said