Peninsula's Cyber Patriot Team Takes on Hackers

Sitting in a classroom for six hours, fueling themselves on doughnuts and Coca-Cola, 10 computer wizards battled against malevolent viruses and impending cyber attacks from unknown hackers. Defeat was only a mouse click away. 

This was no video game but an elite group of students at who took part in the first round of the Cyber Patriot Games in November, a nationwide competition created by the United States Air Force Association. The program is part of an effort to get students more involved in STEM curriculum, which supports science, technology, engineering and math.

“You don’t know if you should click or not but whatever you decide, you are supported by the team and you make the decision together,” said Nick Entin, co-captain of the Cyber-Panther team at Peninsula High. “It is exciting but there is a lot of tension.”

Peninsula passed the first round and will go on to the second round of competition in mid-December. It is one of more than 400 non-military schools, including 50 in Los Angeles Unified School District alone, that entered this year’s competition. Other local schools include first timer and Alain Leroy Locke Senior High School in Torrance. Last year, Peninsula and Locke High were two of only three Los Angeles County schools to make into the finals in Washington, DC.

The military hopes the Cyber Patriot Games will plant a seed. There is a need to train the next generation of so-called cyber warriors to defend this country’s databases against hacking, officials say. According to a recent study by the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, the biggest national security threat facing the nation comes from the theft of U.S. technological, economic and military information by countries such as China and Russia. Just as they would recruit soldiers or the best and the brightest, the military and businesses like Google and eBay are now recruiting computer savvy folks to block the penetration of private computer systems.  

“Even if these kids do not join the Air Force, they might go into a technical field. That is a win for the U.S. economy and ultimately for the nation’s defense,” said retired Air Force Col. Glenn Dildy, who as part of the Air Force Association’s South Bay chapter began recruiting local schools into the program. “You can’t have a strong military without a strong economy over the long term.”

The team at Peninsula practices every week although as they get closer to the competitions, they do more work on their own time as well as at school. Many of the students say they enjoy the intellectual challenge of the competition.

“It’s like a puzzle,” said Miolani Grenier, a sophomore and co-president of the Peninsula High Cyber Patriot team. “It is not monotonous like taking a test. It’s like you have a house with a bunch of doors and you have to know which doors to leave locked and which ones to open.”

Hassan Twiet, Peninsula High’s computer programming teacher and the Cyber Patriot team’s coach, knew he could create a tough team. He hand-picked a group of students who had a basic knowledge about cyber security as well as those who showed an interest and an ability to break down computer software. With a donation from the Peninsula Education Foundation, the team was able to purchase two computers. Ideally, they would like to add at least four more computers for their training. Each computer has to have enough power to run the software for the competition. The Air Force Association has also donated $1,000 to the Peninsula team.

“The students needed to invest the time,” said Twiet of the group which is made up mostly of advanced computer science students. “It is a selective group because we needed to succeed.”

While they did well last year, the team has higher hopes this year. They say they have learned from their mistakes and have spent several meetings discussing what needs to improve. 

“We have a fair chance of winning with the knowledge we gained from last year,” said Entin, 17. “We feel pretty good about it.”