Black & Veatch- Sponsored Team to Compete in National Youth Cyber Defense Competition Finals

OVERLAND PARK, Kan., April 04, 2016 -- The Netrunners, a Black & Veatch-sponsored Sea Cadets team from Winter Park, FL, has qualified to compete in the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition finals. The contest tasks middle and high school student teams with finding and fixing the cyber security vulnerabilities in a company’s network, all while maintaining critical services. Black & Veatch is providing coaching support in addition to sponsorship funding for equipment.

“Knowledge is the first line of defense against cyber threats,” said Christopher Walcutt, Netrunners mentor (technical coach) and Principal Consultant for Security, Risk and Resilience in Black & Veatch’s Management Consulting business. “Through its support for the CyberPatriot program, Black & Veatch is ensuring that the next generation of cyber security experts receives the training and support needed to protect the key information and utility networks of the future.”

In addition to Mr. Walcutt, the team is co-mentored by Mr. Jesse Rodriguez.  Rodriguez is a current Black & Veatch intern under Mr. Walcutt and was part of the Netrunners team that competed in the National Finals in 2014.  The team captain, Chief Petty Officer Peter Steffey, interned at Black & Veatch in 2015.

The Netrunners are among the top twenty-five of 2,919 registered teams in the competition and the top team in the U.S. affiliated with the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps. The team, made up of six high school students, all Sea Cadets, will attempt to protect eight Windows and Linux servers over four hours from intrusion by Northrop Grumman’s live “Red Team” of professional penetration testers.  They will also compete in a Cisco networking challenge where they attempt to reconfigure and fix a broken network. Finally, the Netrunners will participate in a digital forensics challenge where they will need to perform a physical security investigation followed by a digital forensics investigation of the evidence they found in the physical search.

Black & Veatch has put science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) at the center of the company’s philanthropic efforts. To date, its Building a World of Difference Foundation has committed over $3.6 Million to advance STEM education.

Editors Notes:

• The CyberPatriot VIII National Finals Competition will take place April 10-14, 2016 in Baltimore, MD. Teams that qualify for the National Finals Competition receive all expenses-paid trips to Baltimore, MD., and winning teams in each Division receive education grants.
• Cyber security holes pose major risks for utilities. Find out more about Black & Veatch’s approach to protecting the utility and communications industries here.

About Black & Veatch
Black & Veatch is an employee-owned, global leader in building critical human infrastructure in Energy, Water, Telecommunications and Government Services. Since 1915, we have helped our clients improve the lives of people in over 100 countries through consulting, engineering, construction, operations and program management. Our revenues in 2014 were US$3 billion. Follow us on www.bv.com and in social media.

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