We landed on page one of the CyberPatriot competition scoreboard.

[Holding Pattern]

The round 1 results are in... we got 194 out of 200 points! Our team is a mix of previous year cadets and new cadets to the CyberPatriot program.

We haven't even deployed our secret weapon of the year yet!

(Our secret weapon in previous years included WSCC and ninite.com.)

For those of you that are coaches, mentors, or cadets, please, feel free to ask questions. If you got a higher score than us, please, pass on useful tips! If you got a lower score, please, ask for tips!

[FalconHatTrick]

First Year coach here. Our team came in with 122 points.  I was proud of our group since they are all new and we started training in September. Any/All tips are appreciated here.

[Shutterbug]

A team from my wing scored a 200, making them 1st in the state, 5th among CAP teams, and 14th overall for the All Service Division.

They've got a powerful lineup, and a few of their cadets even attended CDTA this summer.

Best of luck in Round 2. It's fantastic to see cadets succeeding in cyberspace!


https://www.facebook.com/235101109845187/photos/pb.235101109845187.-2207520000.1448403169./1054668034555153/?type=3&theater

[Holding Pattern]

Tip 1: We are in the Civil Air Patrol. As such, we should take tips from the pilots. And the biggest tip they gave us? Use a checklist for each image.

I can't overstate just how important this is. You can convert literally each Operating System specific Cyberpatriot Module into a checklist. In addition to this, an extra 10 minutes at the beginning of each round to convert the readme file into a checklist can save an hour of cadets wondering "Did we check that setting they mentioned in the readme?"


Tip 2: There is no skill more important to teach the cadets in the program than how to think. With computers, this can be boiled down into one comic:



The most important box there is the part about googling the program plus some keywords about what you are trying to do. Once your cadets know how to properly ask questions that a search engine can answer, they have won half the competition already.

Some other specific tips related to managing the competition:

1. Train the cadets to not look to you for answers during competition. Make sure they completely understand the difference between coach and proctor. It can be difficult wearing both hats. Make dead certain you are keeping that barrier up.
2. Train the cadets to take notes of questions to ask you after the competition. You can't help them win the battle; you can help them plan to win the next one. Again, observe competition rules regarding when you are a proctor and when you are a coach.
3. Train the cadets to take frequent breaks and to switch which cadets operate on which machines. After 30-45 minutes, cadets may become frustrated, annoyed, or just plain miss things, even when they are using a checklist and properly using google. Having cadets switch from windows to linux and vice versa brings a fresh perspective to each image... but this will cause problems if the cadets aren't documenting what they did. (Another reason the checklists are so important!)
4. Cadets should not eat at the workstations. There are many reasons for this. First, at least for us, these machines are CAP property assigned to me, and I'm NOT going to be the first IT officer to fill out a report about a laptop dying due to a food/drink spill. Second, cadets need a break from staring at a computer monitor for 6 hours. Third, stepping away from the problem can sometimes provide a new perspective that can answer a question that they couldn't answer while at the machine.


One key difference to teach cadets about the differences between windows and linux:
(this is literally(well maybe figuratively) the only difference that matters for the purpose of competition, take note!)

A windows based operating system stores all of its settings in a database. We call it by a fancy term known as the registry.
A linux(or UNIX or any NIX style OS for that matter) stores all of its settings in a series of text documents.

There are some rare exceptions to this rule: for example, the HOSTS file in windows is a text file. Why? Because the hosts file is part of a protocol that predates windows: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)#History

Now, how does this key difference mean anything to the cadets? Simple, really.

To change a setting in windows, 99% of the time the cadets should be either using the Microsoft Management Console (hereafter MMC) or using regedit to edit the registry directly. Because editing the registry is sometimes a pain, there are some apps out there that can take care of specific systems administration tasks, the most famous of which is the sysinternals suite: sysinternals.com

To change a setting in linux, 99% of the time the cadets should be using a text editor (nano is the commandline editor of choice for people new to linux. It is the most friendly of the linux editors you can find. It would not shock me, however, to see a cyberpatriot image show up with it not installed by default. Just in case, I'd suggest learning (or keeping a cheatsheet handy) how to use vi, which is an EVIL TEXT EDITOR.
Cheatsheet here: http://www.lagmonster.org/docs/vi.html



Bonus tips:

1. Teach your cadets the lost art of the Steno book. And no, I'm not referring to shorthand writing.

Buy and issue each cadet a steno book. Said book has a line down the middle of each page. Teach the cadets to write questions down on the left side of the page. Then have them write the name of the person they want to ask that question to on the right side of that page. It doesn't have to be a specific person: It can be "Linux guy" or "Cisco guy" or "IT Officer." Once done, cadets will pass on their questions to you and it becomes your job to find your friendly neighborhood linux guy or cisco guy.

(Note, a steno book isn't actually necessary. Those on a tight budget that couldn't convince the local CVS to donate 5 books can just take ordinary paper and draw a line down the center.)
(Reminder: Obviously, they can't talk to these people during competition, nor can they share the image issues with them. They can however, ask general questions about troubleshooting issues they've run across previously. See section 4004 of the competition rules for specific details)

2. Network! (the social kind of networking!)

Find out what events are going on in your area relating to technology. Where I am we have a community security coalition made up of some 50 tech companies and many more small businesses. Those in the tech sector are great for making sure you have someone to call for those linux and cisco questions. Be sure that you've done your homework on questions first: No one wants to answer a phone to talk about how "the computer won't start" or "it's slow" but if you mention to an MCSE that windows is using 100% of your disk bandwidth and for some reason the SSDP discovery service seems to be the culprit, his interest will be piqued.

3. Encampment!
http://www.ncsas.com/?cyberspace_familiarization_course&show=career_fair&careerFairID=58

If at all possible, you should make sure that 1 cadet from your squadron makes it to a cyberspace familiarization course each year. The cost/education ratio on this is off the charts (in the good way) as far as I'm concerned. Make certain the attending cadet is a copious note taker, and if no copious note-takers are available, well, it is time to teach a cadet to become one.

Also, here is the competition rulebook: https://www.uscyberpatriot.org/Documents/CP-VIII%20Rules%20Book_FINAL_28_Sep_2015.pdf

Always give it a read-over whenever you have an idea on something to do to make sure you don't break THE RULES. Because that would be bad.

[Holding Pattern]

A team from my wing scored a 200, making them 1st in the state, 5th among CAP teams, and 14th overall for the All Service Division.

They've got a powerful lineup, and a few of their cadets even attended CDTA this summer.

Best of luck in Round 2. It's fantastic to see cadets succeeding in cyberspace!


https://www.facebook.com/235101109845187/photos/pb.235101109845187.-2207520000.1448403169./1054668034555153/?type=3&theater

NICE! What are you doing that I'm missing?

[xray328]

Rumor has it that Fox Valley is doing an intense amount of training.  They have some very dedicated guys on the team in leadership positions and are taking the competition very seriously.  You have to try out to be on their team and there's no slacking allowed.  Homework is mandatory.  When the Cisco Academy was offered to the cadets it wasn't considered optional training, it was expected that you were completing the courses on your own time.  They meet at Wing HQ so I think there's a certain level of professionalism and hard work that's expected from their cadets.  They work very hard and it shows.   :clap:

[Holding Pattern]

Argh, we're slipping! This time we landed on page 2! We definitely identified some pacing opportunities and note-taking deficiencies that led to the slip, along with a failure to use certain tools in the Lessons Learned portion of the day. Perfect score on the Cisco test. Hoping we can snap back to page one next round!

[THRAWN]

Argh, we're slipping! This time we landed on page 2! We definitely identified some pacing opportunities and note-taking deficiencies that led to the slip, along with a failure to use certain tools in the Lessons Learned portion of the day. Perfect score on the Cisco test. Hoping we can snap back to page one next round!

You've failed me for the last time....kidding...you identified the issues and are working to correct them. Keep it up. This is one of the most visible activities and it's good to see CAP "in lights".

[Holding Pattern]

Argh, we're slipping! This time we landed on page 2! We definitely identified some pacing opportunities and note-taking deficiencies that led to the slip, along with a failure to use certain tools in the Lessons Learned portion of the day. Perfect score on the Cisco test. Hoping we can snap back to page one next round!

You've failed me for the last time....kidding...you identified the issues and are working to correct them. Keep it up. This is one of the most visible activities and it's good to see CAP "in lights".

Last time I posted our squadron in lights I was told they were doing everything wrong, so no pictures this time

[Holding Pattern]

Rounding out this year, we didn't make it to nationals. We are, however, picking up an AFA award!

For the benefit of future teams:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/solutionaccelerators/cc835245.aspx

This tool is free, lets you build group policies to deploy on a domain.

I know, you're thinking, "But Starfleet, we haven't had a domain network in competition ever!"

Which is why you should pay attention to the localgpo tool that you can install from the main menu of this tool. In short, you can build a GPO, test it against a baseline, export it to a flashdrive, and dump it onto a system.

You can also test an exported GPO against a baseline that you design.

As always, make sure you follow policy and don't build anything for the cadets.

Make them work for it!

NOTE: We didn't use this tool. We ran out of training time. Next cycle, we will use this.

[tkelley004]

Congrats!  :clap: and thanks for the tips, we will see you in the ring next year!