AMES, Iowa - Airmen of the 168th Cyberspace Operations Squadron assigned to the 132d Wing, Iowa Air National Guard, participated in the International Cyber Defense Competition Feb. 22 at Iowa State University.
Cyber teams from the armed forces of Kosovo, Albania and Northern Macedonia participated with university teams from Iowa State, Kansas, DePaul, Northern Iowa, Drake and several Iowa high schools.
“Seeing the Guard here participating gives the students here a feeling of how cool the event is and how truly international it is,” said Prof. Doug Jacobson, ISU Center for Cybersecurity Innovation and Outreach director.
The competition pits the industry’s best against some of the most talented students in the Midwest. For the Iowa Air National Guard Airmen, it was a chance to hone new skills.
“It’s been great to get a lot of hands-on technical experience,” said Capt. William Smith, 168th COS cyber systems operator. “We got to set up our systems from scratch, which we don’t usually get a chance to do. The collaboration with the teams here has been stellar.”
Competitors secure and manage network services while defending against cyberattacks. Blue Teams of four to eight students have three weeks to secure their systems before facing an eight-hour attack from a Red Team of security professionals attempting to steal “flags” and deduct points.
Beyond defense, Blue teams also ensured usability for the Green Team, which evaluated their services and awarded points. They also tackled anomalies — real-world IT challenges that required balancing security and usability, mirroring the complexities of cybersecurity in professional settings.
The event brought together high school and college students from around the Midwest, including some who serve in the Iowa Air National Guard.
“I’ve always been into computers and development programming,” said Senior Airman Chase Anderson, a 168th COS cyber warfare operator and software engineering student at ISU. “When I had a chance to bring that into my military life and advance that career, I totally jumped on it. I love sitting behind a computer, being a keyboard warrior and taking on whatever threats come our way.”
The 132d Wing has built partnerships around the Iowa community to promote STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) courses and education. These partnerships have been critical to the success of events like the cyber defense competition.
“The partnership brings a lot to the table,” said Jacobson, who has worked with the Iowa National Guard for over 15 years. “We would’ve never been able to stand this event up without the support of the Guard and the State Partnership Program. We hope to keep expanding this event to include more Adriatic countries and other Guard units from other states.”
The Iowa National Guard and Kosovo have been partners in the Department of Defense National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program since 2011.
Since being activated in 2017, the 168th COS has executed its mission of providing cyber protection teams to identify, pursue and mitigate cyberspace threats impacting Department of Defense information networks, critical links and nodes, playing a crucial role in national defense.