From: DiamondBar.Patch.com

The team will take on the squad from DePaul University at the National Cyber League championship Sunday in Orlando.

By Melanie C. Johnson

Mt. SAC’s battle Sunday with DePaul University has all of the makings of a good David and Goliath story.

Two teams who fought their way through the playoffs have reached the national championship  – one a noted four-year private university and the other a community college, albeit one of the largest in California.

The squads plan to square off, matching up offensively and defensively, but the game they are playing isn’t your average sport.  Both schools have teams participating in the National Cyber League championship in Orlando this weekend.

“This is a sport and it’s a team competition sport,” said Dan Manson, a Cal Poly Pomona professor and one of the founders of the National Cyber League.  “We want to develop it so people are as excited about a cyber competition as they are about other sports.”

Mt. SAC’s team of eight is thrilled about the competition.  During a recent practice session, the players stared intensely at multiple computer screens.  Some conferred on strategy, as they were tasked with trying to figure out how to fend off attacks from hackers.

“The interesting thing is finding the vulnerability and trying to mitigate it somehow,” said 27-year-old Jimmy Tu of West Covina.

Chris Nila, the team captain, said all of the members work well together.  In previous competitions, the team would have a set strategy, but when the bell rung, all of that would be lost, said the 39-year-old Covina resident.  By the end of the National Cyber League playoffs, the squad learned to be ready for anything, he said.

“The competition started and all you could hear was keyboards,” he said.  “We were so focused.”

The country is in need of qualified workers who can ward off cyber attacks, according to organizers of the competition.  The United States will need 60,000 cyber-security workers in the next five years, computer industry officials have said.

Nila said he is pursuing a career in network security and sees it as a booming field that most people know a little something about at least.

“I can talk to family and friends about it,” he said.  “Cyber security is news.  It’s important and they get it.”

Cyber competitions aren’t new.  Manson said that Cal Poly first hosted the National Cyber Defense Competition’s Western Regionals in 2008.

While the Cyber Defense Competition gives schools a chance to compete, it was one and done, he said.  The idea behind the newly created National Defense League is to allow teams to build on their skills each week during the playoffs before they reach the national championship. The playoffs, which involved 30 teams from around the country, lasted four weeks.

“We are a farm league.  We try to prep kids for a higher level of competition,” he said. “We have had a lot of learning curve issues, but I think it has been a great proof of a concept because we’ve proven we can do a season.”

Last year, Mt. SAC received a $3 million four-year grant to establish and operate a CyberWatch West center from 2011 through 2015.  The regional center will support CyberWatch West programs, including dealing with the shortage of workers in the network security field, and is similar to ones opened in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Besides Mt. SAC, the CyberWatch West consortium includes Cal Poly, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Cal State San Bernardino, and Whatcom Community College in Washington.

Jim Gau, a Mt. SAC professor and the team’s advisor, said many of the students involved are pursuing an associate of science degree created in 2006, with several courses on network systems.  He said the team members have embraced competing as a way to further their learning.

“The students have done a wonderful job.  They are very dedicated, very knowledgeable,” Gau said.  “It’s a very good team that functions as a whole unit.”

Robert Murray, a 34-year-old Chino Hills resident and Walnut High School alum, said he is looking forward to participating in his first competition.

“I’m generally a calm person.  It’s just the few minutes before the competition when I start to get a little nervous,” he said.  “I feel good about our tactics and what we’ve learned.”

Glendora resident Philip Weniger, 26, also hopes his first time will be the charm.

“I’m actually excited,” he said.  “This is something I’ve never done before.”