CWDHS all-female team advances to Canadian cybersecurity nationals
March 20, 2019
FERGUS, Ontario – Centre Wellington District High School is headed back to the Canadian cybersecurity national finals.
One of the school’s teams is the top female team in the country and will compete in the CyberTitan Nationals in Ottawa this spring.
All year, multiple teams from CWDHS worked extremely hard, participating in multiple rounds of cybersecurity competitions. They duked it out against more than 6,300 teams worldwide in the CyberPatriot competition in the fall and winter – vying for a chance to advance to the CyberPatriot state finals and eventually to the Canadian CyberTitan finals.
Throughout the competitions, students tackled a variety of cybersecurity challenges. Teams received virtual image files that were infected with different viruses. They worked together to identify the bad code, write patches, and prevent hacking into their systems in real time. They worked in Windows and Linux as well as with Cisco software. Members of the team brought with them different strengths, some specializing in Windows, Linux or Cisco, some were research specialists, able to research quickly and effectively if they ran into problems.
Cybersecurity is a high demand occupation, said CW teacher Timothy King, with more jobs being available than there are people to fill them. Cyber-attacks have become increasingly more harmful and more common, a trend that shows no sign of slowing down. Past students of King’s have taken what they learned in their high school courses and pursued careers in cybersecurity in postsecondary education.
The national championship will take place from May 13 to 16 in Ottawa. Only 10 teams from across the country advanced to the finals.
Last year, competitors from CWDHS made it to the finals in Fredericton, finishing fifth overall in Canada.
Congratulations and best of luck to the Falcontech team — Emily, Rachel, Kathryn, Alexandra, Charlotte and Louise!
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