Keesler mentor guides team for CyberPatriot competition

Published Nov. 2, 2011
By Susan Griggs
81st Training Wing Public Affairs

KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- Staff Sgt. Tobias Mccurry is using his technical expertise to nurture a whole new generation of cyber warriors.

Saturday, the 602nd Training Group information technology systems administrator was on hand as St. Martin High School's Junior ROTC team challenged other squads from around the country in the first round of the Air Force Association's CyberPatriot national high school cyber defense competition.

CyberPatriot, now in its fourth year, was created to inspire high school students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Student teams face off in two parallel competitions. The all-service division, in which St. Martin competes, is open only to Junior ROTC and Civil Air Patrol units. The open division is for accredited public or private institutions or registered home school associations. Teams are made up of five members in grades 9-12, up to five alternates, a coach who serves as the team's administrator and technical advisers, such as Mccurry.

For the past three months, Mccurry has volunteered as a mentor for the St. Martin team. Twice a week, he meets with the cadets to go over strategy and make sure that the cadets are able to work together. He spends another three to four hours a week looking over research material to bring new ideas to the group and to keep the students interested.

"I've covered ethics, network scanning, vulnerability management, system patching and working together in an information technology environment," Mccurry pointed out.

Saturday's first round involved a six-hour defense of a server. In each round, students are provided one to three virtual machines, essentially a computer running inside of another computer, that enable multiple operating systems to be run from one computer. These machines contain several vulnerabillities, or weaknesses, and students must clean the image of them.

Teams worked on making sure the server is secure and its required services -- web, email and printers--are working.

The results are tallied by finding and fixing vulnerabilities and keeping the required services up and running. Teams that find the most vulnerabilties pass on to the next round, and the winners of all three rounds compete in the national championships, March 22-23 in National Harbor, Md.

Mccurry, who enlisted eight years ago, was originally a radio frequency systems maintainer who came to Keesler two years ago after serving at the 338th TRS detachment at Fort Gordon, Ga., for three years. He gained most of his knowledge for his current 2nd Air Force position through self-taught courses and practice. He also earned a degree in information systems security.

"Sergeant Mccurry's technical background is perfect for being a mentor, and the cadets really enjoy working with him," said Lt. Col. John Thompson, the team's coach and St. Martin's senior aerospace science instructor for the past 11 years. He retired from active duty in 1998 with 20 years of service, the last four at Keesler in total quality management and as an operations officer in the 335th Training Squadron. He was previously a Titan-II commander and worked F-16 and B-2 bomber acquisitions.

"CyberPatriot helps cadets who are interested in computers to develop marketable skills," Thompson remarked. "It helps our ROTC unit attract bright kids. In the long term, it may help America with cyber security."

The cadets have benefited from the technical expertise and enthusiasm Mccurry brings to the team.

Alex Robinson said, "He's been a great help and dedicated a lot of time to our team." Jimmie Wilson said. "He helped me get scanning tools to work properly on my computer."

"I appreciate his helpfulness and he makes it fun," said team member Jared Monk. Another cadet, Zach Schneider, said. "He reminds me of my brother which makes it easy for me to trust working with him."

Keesler mentor for Cyber Patriot Competition