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Press Release | April 26, 2010

U.S. Naval Academy Triumphs in 10th Annual Cyber Defense Exercise

The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) is pleased to announce that the U.S. Naval Academy has won the 2010 Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX). CDX, an annual event that is sponsored by NSA/CSS, is a computer security competition designed to foster education and awareness among future military leaders about the role of Information Assurance (IA). This year's proud winners overcame several new challenges, successfully countering the expected network obstacles as well as a host of new ones created expressly for the 10th anniversary of the CDX.

During the CDX, NSA/CSS network specialists (Red Cell) challenged teams in their abilities to defend the computer networks that the students had designed, built, and configured at their respective schools. The entire CDX is conducted on virtual private networks, providing a safe path for the exercise without interference to real-world networks. The students were graded on each team's ability to effectively maintain network services while they detected, responded to, and recovered from network security intrusions or compromises. The winning student team from the U.S. Naval Academy scored the highest in defending its network against the Red Cell's attack.

Teams from the US Air Force Academy (USAFA), US Coast Guard Academy (USCGA), US Military Academy (USMA), US Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA), and the US Naval Academy (USNA) participated in the exercise. Also participating in the exercise were the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), and the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) - as graduate-level institutions, these schools were scored on the same basis as the undergraduate schools, but were not eligible for the trophy. Each school's student team was part of the "Blue Cell," the defensive team for the CDX.

For more information regarding CDX, please visit our website, NSA.gov, to view an award winning video of CDX 2009. See the After Exercise Fact Sheet for more information on this year's exercise. For questions on CDX 2010, please contact the NSA Public and Media Affairs Office at nsapao@nsa.gov or 301-688-6524.