A team of students from U.S. Naval War College (NWC), Newport, Rhode Island placed first in the annual Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge competition held over three days at American University's Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C.

The contest pitted 48 college teams from 32 schools from around the world, and judged their responses to a scenario in which a major cyber attack occurred and how the nation to react.

The NWC team was coached by Chris Demchek, the Rear Adm. Grace M. Hopper Chair of Cybersecurity at NWC, and Capt. Fred Turner, military professor of Joint Military Operations at NWC.

"Their enthusiasm and willingness to take on what was a new challenge to most of the team produced this exceptional outcome," said Demchek, who is also director for Center for Cyber Conflict Studies, which sponsored the team.

For the competition, each team was tasked with producing a written policy brief to be given to their fictional boss, the special assistant to the president and White House cybersecurity coordinator.

The team also was required to give a 10-minute oral presentation outlining four possible policy options -- and recommending one of the options -- in response to the ongoing cybersecurity incident.

Lt. Cmdr. Jason Fahy led NWC's team, and said the win was surprising considering he and his teammates are not all cyber experts, which may have helped the group.

"This is a forcing function to learn about this topic," said Fahy. "I know that I didn't know anything about this subject, and I was forced to learn quickly about this. Our backgrounds are diverse, and we don't all have a background in cyber. This allowed us to approach the problem in a different way."

Other members of the team were Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Vanak, and Air Force Majs. Benjamin Ramsey and Josh Burger.

"This directly helps me with my research," said Ramsey, the only member who does have a background in cyber operations. "My next job will be a cyber squadron, so I will deal more with the international norms and implications of cyber operations. This will be important for my very next job."

Even if they hadn't won, the experience was important.

"There is value in thinking about these sorts of problems as part of our war college education," said Burger. "I don't think we would have talked about many of these complex issues if we hadn't been part of this competition. One of the hottest topics in security is cyber, and this has been a valuable independent study in this area."

Vanak said this competition puts his education in a broader perspective.

"This reinforces the policy and international relations issues we have been studying and puts it into a real-world scenario," he said. "It really reminds me of some of our classroom exercises."

Demchek added the group had a full learning experience.

"They engaged in a 360-degree learning experience from voluntary crash course on the topic bringing together study, discussion, and expert guidance; to analysis and recompiling of data to create systemic policy options in ever smaller increments of preparation time; to -- finally -- a tight, professional delivery of options and recommendations to senior evaluators for decision making," she said.

The competition is sponsored by the Atlantic Council, a Washington, D.C., think tank which promotes constructive leadership and engagement in international affairs.

Fahy added, "I'm glad we did this; it was very rewarding."

NWC is an upper-level professional military education institution which includes a one-year resident program which graduates 600 resident students a year, and a multifaceted distance education program which graduates more than 1,000 students per year. Its missions include educating and developing leaders, helping define the future of the Navy, supporting combat readiness, and strengthening maritime partnerships. Students earn Joint Professional Military Education (JPME) credit and either a diploma or a master's degree in national security and strategic studies or defense and strategic studies.

Established in 1884, U.S. Naval War College is the oldest institution of its kind in the world. More than 50,000 students have graduated since its first class of nine students in 1885, and approximately 300 of today's active-duty admirals, generals, and senior executive service leaders are alumni.

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