"Emerging Cyberpros Tried to Conquer The Hill in Argonne's Latest CyberForce Program Challenge"
The latest individual CyberForce Program competition led by Argonne National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, challenged college-aged students to solve anomalies in a seven-hour cyber sprint. Cameron Whitehead of the University of Central Florida was named the winner of the 2023 CyberForce Conquer the Hill: Adventurer Edition competition by Argonne National Laboratory. Whitehead was one of 213 students from 95 accredited US colleges and universities that competed digitally over a seven-hour energy sector-related adventure to resolve over 57 anomalies, which are work-based cybersecurity tasks and challenges. The goals of the DOE's Conquer the Hill competitions and the overall CyberForce Program, which Argonne leads, are to provide college students with hands-on education, raise awareness about the critical infrastructure and cybersecurity nexus, and promote basic understanding of cybersecurity in real-world scenarios. According to a 2022 study, the US lacks 410,695 cybersecurity professionals. With the volume of information on the Internet rising, enhancing security and establishing a cybersecurity workforce is a top issue. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education framework was used to map all of the anomalies in this year's Conquer the Hill: Adventurer competition. DOE and Argonne believe that by developing the challenges within this framework, students will be able to better understand where they are proficient in cybersecurity abilities and where they may need to improve. This article continues to discuss the 2023 CyberForce Conquer the Hill: Adventurer Edition competition.