Left to right: Glend Lopez, Jesus Reyes, Mario Gurrero, Gabriela Hernandez, Leandro Villar, Leonardo Martinez, Rafy Reyes, Mariana Cotzomi, Christopher Cancel, Team mentor Mr. Frank. Photo by staff

By Hilltop Staff—

When the Chinese government recently denied the cyber-attacks of American corporations and government agencies for the purpose of gaining leverage in negotiations, many Americans have now become aware of the threat from abroad. America needs a new breed of protector who can defend against this new threat from abroad and even from domestic attack.

2012 – 2013 is the inaugural year of the Passaic High School Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Cyber Patriot Team. PHS students in the NJROTC program are answering the call for a new generation of intelligent patriots to protect American interests. Cyber Patriot is the premiere national high school cyber defense competition created by the Air Force Association to inspire high school students toward careers in cyber security or

other science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines critical to our nation’s future.

Schools from around the world compete. During competition, the teams could be solving up to three computer images during one six-hour period. PHS cadet corps upperclassmen Glend Lopez, Jesus Reyes, Mario Gurrero, Gabriela Hernandez, Leandro Villar, Leonardo Martinez, Rafy Reyes, Mariana Cotzomi, and Christopher Cancel, accepted the challenge. They were mentored by math teacher Mr. Frank and coached by NJROTC teacher Petty Officer Nuyen.

Although the team just missed qualifying for the semi-final round, they did qualify for the consolation round. During this round, they were required to find all vulnerabilities in three different images with three different operating systems within one six-hour period.

In the consolation round the PHS NJROTC Cyber Patriot’s finished in 2nd place among NJROTC schools, 4th among all JROTC and Civil Air Patrol schools, and 12th among the 300 total schools competing.

These young patriots are proud of their achievements in this competition. “I really liked participating in this competition,” said Senior Gabriela Hernandez, “I learned a lot.”

The successful representation by PHS in Cyber Patriot V this year can be built upon in Cyber Patriot VI next year. PHS is certainly proud of these cadets, and thankful for the guidance of Mr. Nuyen and Mr. Frank.