FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                      RELEASE NO. 14-07 

WEST POINT TAKES FIRST PLACE IN CYBER DEFENSE EXERCISE – May 3, 2007
                  WEST POINT, N.Y. – The National Security Agency announced yesterday the U.S. Military Academy cadets won their third Cyber Defense Exercise held April 16-20 against the four other service academies and the Air Force Institute of Technology. The exercise is designed to teach students how to protect and defend the nation’s information systems.
                    The CDX was established in 2001 by West Point in collaboration and support from the National Security Agency. The exercise challenges each team to design, build and configure a real-world computer network and simulates a deployed joint service command. A network attack team, composed of NSA and Department of Defense personnel, then identifies the vulnerabilities and launches attacks on each network over a five-day period.
                    “Cadets are exposed to Information Assurance concepts throughout their academic experience at USMA. The Cyber Defense Exercise allows them to apply their knowledge and experience in a competitive environment,” said Maj. Damon Becknel, U.S. Military Academy’s Information Warfare Professor and CDX coach.
                    Cadets will actively defend their networks against the NSA in an effort to keep systems on-line and available. Each team is evaluated on their ability to maintain services, as well as efforts to prevent and recover from security breaches and provide forensic analysis of compromised systems.
                    The growing success of the service academies CDX has received interest from others in the academic community. A steering group of information security experts recently met to establish the framework for a national Cyber Defense Exercise, which will incorporate qualified state universities throughout the country. The first prototype of these university competitions took place this spring.
The NSA will present West Point’s winning team with the Information Assurance Director’s Trophy this month.
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Editor’s Note: Media interested in covering this event should call Mike D’Aquino or Frank DeMaro, USMA Public Affairs Office at (845) 938-2006.