RVC Computer and Information Systems Students Shine in National Cyber League Competition

• Students
• 06/14/2024

This year, six RVC Computer and Information Systems students recently received Diamond, Platinum, Gold, and Silver medals during the National Cyber League Competition.

 

 

The National Cyber League, powered by Cyber Skyline, is a virtual, learning-centered cybersecurity competition designed to bridge the gap from curriculum to careers. This competition is held once each semester and is open to college and high school students.

Stephanie Wascher takes great pride in the students’ accomplishments this year.

"In the realm of cybersecurity, success is not just about technical prowess, but also about adaptability, critical thinking, and a relentless pursuit of excellence. Our students' remarkable achievements in the National Cyber League Competition reflect their dedication, resilience, and passion for this field. I am incredibly proud of their accomplishments and confident in their ability to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity."

Students had to identify hackers from forensic data, pen test & audit vulnerable websites, recover from ransomware attacks, and more. Schools are ranked based on their top team performance, their top student's individual performance, and the aggregate individual performance of their students.

 

Jailah Campbell, a student in the cybersecurity program, says the National Cyber League challenged her skills and encouraged her to develop these skills over the course of her participation. This led Jailah to want to dive deeper into the realm of cybersecurity. 

“I was able to discover aspects and skills which I was not aware of before. The team worked amazingly hard throughout the season to get us closer to success and higher in the rankings. Since participating my passion for cybersecurity and the program has increased tremendously and made me want to further my education and career in the field.”

The NCL competition uses a system called badging to help individuals and teams track their performance. The Medal Badges issued by NCL consist of a division and a tier, which together represents an individual or team's percentile score in a game. There are five divisions: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Within each division are four tiers. They are represented as a numeric value starting from 4 (being the lowest) to 1 (being the highest). The division and tiers help players track their performance and growth across NCL Seasons.

For the individual we had one student achieve DIAMOND, two students achieve PLATINUM, one student achieve GOLD, and two students achieve SILVER:

• Eric Patterson finished 2396th out of 7,406 in the 68th percentile nationally and earned a SILVER-1 Medal
• Jailah Campbell finished 2370th out of 7,404 in the 68th percentile nationally and earned a SILVER-1 Medal
• Jaereth Anderson finished 1,884th out of 7,404 in the 75th percentile nationally and earned a GOLD-2 Medal
• Kristina Krist finished 1,135th out of 7,404 in the 85th percentile nationally and earned a PLATINUM-3 Medal
• Robert Samoraj finished 878th place out of 7,404 in the 89th percentile nationally and earned a PLATINUM-1 Medal.
• Corey Hirsch finished 122nd place out of 7,404 in the 99th percentile nationally and earned DIAMOND-1 Medal

These six students were joined by an additional student, Dylan Gerig-Carlson, and competed in the team competition in April, finishing 96th out of 4,199 Teams. Congratulations to our CIS team for an outstanding finish!

Rock Valley College ranked 49th Nationally out of 476 Colleges and Universities and 15th in the Central United States in the Cyber Power Rankings. The Cyber Power Rankings were created by Cyber Skyline in partnership with the National Cyber League (NCL). Every year, over 10,000 students from more than 500 colleges & universities and 100 high schools across the US participate in the NCL competitions. These rankings represent the ability of students from these schools to perform real-world cybersecurity tasks on the Cyber Skyline platform.