College students will compete to defend against simulated cyber attacks and learn about careers as cybersecurity professionals
Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response
October 17, 2024
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With the ever-increasing demand for skilled cybersecurity professionals in the United States, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) CyberForce® Program works to enhance cybersecurity skills at the collegiate level. The flagship CyberForce Competition®, taking place on November 9, invites teams of U.S. college and university students to participate in real-world, operational technology cybersecurity challenges. This year’s tenth edition of the competition is sponsored by DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER) and led by DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne).
What is the CyberForce Competition®?
The CyberForce Competition started in 2016 as a collegiate, team-based competition with a defend/attack energy cyber scenario, focused on critical infrastructure. Teams defend a simulated virtual infrastructure against Red Team ‘simulated adversary’ attackers.
This year, the scenario will feature defending a wind energy generation plant against simulated cyber attacks, while also monitoring the cascading downstream impacts to infrastructure relying upon the energy production. Teams will need to harden their systems, think creatively about defense to prevent and mitigate attacks, and think about how to remediate breaches to ensure that their wind generation plant is at its maximum operational capacity to complete the mission.
“As we undergo an energy transition, it is critical that we build a strong cyber workforce to ensure the next generation of energy systems are built, maintained, and operated with cybersecurity in mind,” said Puesh M. Kumar, Director of CESER. “The CyberForce Competition helps grow cyber defenders who will help us secure U.S. energy systems of today, and the future.”
Check out a short overview video: “The Department of Energy CyberForce Competition®."!
How will students benefit from the competition?
- Realistic scenarios: Competitors will be tasked to defend an energy critical infrastructure system with real-world constraints and anomalies, simulating problems they may face in a real-world work environment.
- Virtual cyber-physical infrastructure: The consequence of a compromised network becomes more apparent to students while they defend their virtual cyber-physical devices. This raises awareness of the nexus between critical infrastructure and cybersecurity.
- Innovation, applicability, and system security: In addition to encouraging teamwork and creative strategies, the competition stresses the importance of system usability. It encourages teams to think creatively in developing strategies that ensure user friendly systems, while also keeping the infrastructure secured from attacks.
- Teamwork: This is an important component of the CyberForce Competition. It encourages students to foster soft skills such as teamwork and collaborative strategy, in addition to the technical skills necessary to defend real-world systems.
“Students from U.S. colleges and universities will compete on small teams to battle unique challenges that threaten to take down a virtual wind energy plant,” said Amanda Theel, Workforce Development Group Leader in Argonne’s Strategic Security Sciences Division. “The excitement and energy in the room is unlike any other competition I have been a part of, and I know the students get very competitive about thinking strategically and working collaboratively to defend their systems.” Theel has helped lead the DOE’s CyberForce Competition since its inception in 2016.
In addition to the annual Competition, the CyberForce Program offers targeted training through three virtual, individual-based Conquer the Hill® competitions, a quarterly webinar series, and virtual career fairs throughout the year.
Other DOE offices that provide support to the CyberForce Competition are the Office of Electricity, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, the Grid Deployment Office, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Information Management, and the Office of Science.
To learn more about the CyberForce Program, visit CyberForce® Program | Department of Energy.