The Cyber Defense Exercise is an annual computer security contest put on by the National Security Agency/Central Security Service as a way to foster education and awareness among future military leaders about the role of information assurance.
The contest pits network specialists tasked with securing the U.S. Government’s most sensitive communication systems against teams from the U.S. Air Force Academy, U.S. Coast Guard Academy, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, U.S. Naval Academy, U.S. Military Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School, the Air Force Institute of Technology, and the Royal Military College of Canada to see which can defend computer networks the students have designed, built and configured at their respective schools.
A NSA press release explains that each team is graded by a separate group of specialists on their “ability to effectively maintain network services while detecting, responding to, and recovering from network security intrusions or compromises.” In order to guard against disruption of real-world networks, the contest takes place on virtual private networks.
For three years running, West Point has won the competition.
Further reading: 2010 NSA/CSS press release, transcript of 2009 competition.
