Organization and training of a cyber security team

The Cyber Defense Exercise (CDX), an annual competition between students at the five U.S. Service Academies has developed into an extraordinary educational experience for the cadets and midshipmen who take part in the exercise. It provides an excellent capstone exercise for these students during which their skills in protecting and defending information assurance concepts and their skills in protecting and defending information systems are assessed in the context of realist, true-to-life scenario. During the three years that this exercise has been conducted two additional significant benefits, neither of which had been anticipated by the exercise developers, have been realized. In particular, as the manner in which cadet prepare for and participate in the CDX has evolved it has become clear that it is an excellent leader development experience for all of the exercise participants. Finally, since the skill and the knowledge levels of the participants has improved so dramatically over the past three years the CDX has become an excellent testing ground for new emerging concepts in information assurance.