Del Norte High students learn cybersecurity, vie for Mayor’s Cup

A team of Del Norte High students will be trying to stop simulated computer hackers and fix website vulnerabilities on Saturday as they compete in the sixth annual San Diego Mayor’s Cyber Cup.

DNHS CyberHawks is one of 11 middle and high school teams — eight from San Diego County, two from Los Angeles and one from Orange County — who are finalists. A Westview High School team also made the finals among the more than 40 that competed in preliminary rounds.

The competition will conclude on March 28 at the UC San Diego Super Computer Center. The winning team will be invited to an elite summer Cyber Boot Camp facilitated by Securing Our eCity Foundation.

Del Norte’s coach, Paul Johnson, said the CyberHawks making it into the finals is quite an accomplishment since this is the team’s first year. It formed last June and students have spent four to six hours each Sunday learning about computers, operating systems and networking in order to learn how to identify online vulnerabilities — like weak passwords — and defend a website while under attack by hackers.

Cyber threats span from viruses to worms and spyware, utilized for a variety of reasons including obtaining people’s passwords, credit card information and company or government data. Those seeking this information — often for illegal purposes — include regular hackers, state sponsored organizations, terrorist groups and organized crime.

Johnson also had praise for the Black Mountain Middle School team that trains with Del Norte. The younger students placed fifth in this year’s National Cyber Patriot competition. To attend the national finals in Washington, D.C., the Black Mountain team of seventh and eighth graders had to be among the top three teams. It was in first place after the first qualifying round, but slipped to fifth in the second round. Black Mountain won the state competition.

Del Norte’s team was in the top 10 percent of Cyber Patriot teams, which had almost 2,200 teams compete among various divisions across the country.

Cyber Patriot was created by the Air Force Association as a national youth cyber education program to inspire students to pursue careers in cybersecurity and other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields.

Johnson, who along with Sam El-Akkad are the teams’ volunteer coaches, said he approached Del Norte officials last year about starting a team to enter the Cyber Patriot competition. The San Diego Mayor’s Cyber Cup is a separate, but similar, competition.

He said the students learn real-life skills that not only help them now improve their online network safety, but could lead to a career.

According to Johnson, the cybersecurity industry adds $1.5 billion annually to San Diego’s economy and employs more than 6,600 San Diegans among 100 cybersecurity companies. In a survey, 34 percent of companies reported they had “some difficulty” finding qualified applicants and another 22 percent reported “great difficulty.” He said the region’s employment growth is expected to increase by 2.2 percent, but cybersecurity jobs are projected to grow by 25.7 percent.

Most practices for the Del Norte and Black Mountain teams are held at Northrop Grumman, where Johnson is a cyber systems engineer. Some Black Mountain students might eventually be on Del Norte’s team or join the Westview High team, which Johnson called “quite the competitor” and said it has been in existence for several years.

Johnson said Northrop Grumman has committed around $11 million to the Cyber Patriot national program since 2010 and locally has given the Del Norte team a $500 grant plus a place to practice.

Samantha Tran, a Del Norte junior and Cyber Patriot Club president, said prior to her freshman year she did not have a lot of exposure to how computers work. She decided to join the club “because it sounded really cool and really interesting.”

Lessons she has learned led her to change her online habits, like strengthening her passwords and installing stronger protections on her laptop.

“I’m more aware of (computer) viruses and how to get rid of them,” Tran said. “Before I had no idea. ... I didn’t realize how complex computers or networks are.”

Tran said she enjoys the program because of its “fun learning environment” and she is learning things not taught in the classroom. While she might have considered being a computer science major in college, focusing on cybersecurity was not a consideration. Now, she is looking at schools that offer that as a major.

Kevin Ma, a Del Norte senior and the team’s captain, said he is also interested pursuing a computer-related major and has learned not only “tools of the trade,” but about various types of cyber threats.

“It’s a nice opportunity to show students the threats in the real world and how going into such a field (is possible),” Ma said. “It’s real world experience.”

Ma said he also has changed his online habits since joining the team. He has created longer passwords and uses a password manager instead of his previous practice of writing passwords down on a piece of paper.

Both students said they are pleased with the team’s success during its first year.

Johnson, who previously coached his son’s FIRST Lego League and robotics teams at his elementary and middle schools, said he would like to expand the program by increasing student participation at the two campuses and start at team at Oak Valley Middle School. For details on joining, send an email to cyberpatriotpusd@gmail.com.