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 four-day period.
“Our cadets are exposed to Information Assurance concepts throughout their 47-month experience at West Point. The Cyber Defense Exercise allows them to apply their knowledge and experience in a competitive environment,” said Col. Joe Adams, U.S. Military Academy’s Information Assurance Professor and CDX coach.
Cadets actively defended their networks against the NSA in an effort to keep systems on-line and available. Each team was 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.
West Point has won this event five times since its inception in 2001, “this is an unprecedented success and is a tribute to the cadets’ hard work” said Adams.
The NSA will present West Point’s winning team with the Information Assurance Director’s Trophy in May.About West Point
West Point, The U.S. Military Academy, is a four-year co-educational federal undergraduate liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. The world's preeminent leader development institution, it was founded in 1802 as America's first college of engineering. Its mission remains constant-to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army. For more information, go to www.westpoint.edu