uscga badge

Cyber Resources

Cyber Partnerships

Academic and professional development are the core of the cadet experience. Co-curricular academic and professional offerings provide opportunities to learn from faculty outside the classroom and experts in the field.

For more information about internship partners and the Academy’s relationship with the U.S. Coast Guard Research and Development Center, visit uscga.edu/cyber-systems.

The Academy’s cyber policies and procedures are aligned with federal regulations. This includes all cadets and faculty completing the Department of Defense’s Cyber Awareness Challenge. To learn more about federal cybersecurity policies, visit https://www.nist.gov/cybersecurity or Department of Defense (DoD) Cybersecurity Reference Architecture.

Cyber Team

The Academy has an active Cyber Team that competes throughout the academic year. The Academy is proud to highlight some of the Team’s 2022-2023 accomplishments and upcoming events.

This is the premier competition of the fall semester. The top 06 cadets from the USCGA Cyber Team traveled to Chicago to compete in a “live-fire” scenario against over 165 teams from over 150 of the top cybersecurity collegiate programs in the country in the 7th Annual DOE CyberForce Competition. Cadets competed categories such as developing secure web infrastructure from scratch, integrating enterprise IT systems and assessing security, carrying out network and host-based forensic analysis of attacks, and documenting five threat hunting and incident response scenarios in a time-constrained setting. In the first year of competing, and out of over 165 teams, the CGA Cyber Team finished 13th place overall and bested all military academies and senior military colleges in attendance, as well as many other well-known collegiate cyber programs.

Members of the CGA Cyber Team participated in the National Cyber League Fall 2022 Individual and Team Competitions, measuring skills in a wide variety of cyber disciplines ranging from web application hacking to digital forensics, cryptography, and reverse engineering. Underclass team members led the way in the individual competition, with our top scoring cadet (3/c Fulbright) finishing in the top 4% out of over 6,500 competitors across the country. In the team competition, a mixed team of upperclass and underclass cadets finished in a similar top tier of teams.

During 20-22 January 2023, 15 cadets from the CGA Cyber Team traveled to Washington, DC to learn, compete, and network at the Shmoocon 2023 Cybersecurity Conference. Cyber Team cadets attended keynote presentations, networked with CGCYBER Officers and industry processionals, and studied and competed in a variety of technical fields including reverse engineering, cryptography, and RFID exploitation. Some notable cadet achievements from the conference are:

  • A team of underclass cadets were the first-place finishers of the Clarity Cybersecurity Cryptography Challenge, finishing the challenges hours before any other team in attendance did.
  • 1/c Campbell worked collaboratively with prior CG Cyber officers to solve the RET2 Systems reverse engineering challenge, a prestigious and notable reverse engineering puzzle that no CGA cadet has solved in three years.
From 19-21 April 2023 the Cyber Team will compete in the National Security Agency’s annual National Cyber Exercise (NCX) against other service academies and senior military colleges. Multiple four-person CGA teams will compete in such areas as data analysis, digital forensics, reverse engineering, and policy. The event concludes on the final day with a six hour “live-fire” attack and defense event.

Cyber Outreach

Under the oversight of the Cyber Council, the Academy conducts outreach in the Corps of Cadets and with secondary school students.

Cyber Range – A mandatory component of second-class (junior) summer for all cadets, to establish foundational knowledge of cyber concepts and principles.

NET21 – A youth leadership experience operating under the U.S. Coast Guard’s Partnership in Education Program. NET21 introduces local youth to the field of cybersecurity and provides mentorship to pursue challenging academic goals.

Cyber Resources

Cadets, faculty, and Service stakeholders are welcome to use this library of resources to further their work.

Those interested in learning more about cybersecurity are encouraged to check out the following resources: Those interested in staying up to date on cybersecurity news are encouraged to check out the following resources: Those interested in more advanced Cybersecurity education are encouraged to explore the following:

Have a free resource that you would like us to feature, contact the Vice Chair of the Cyber Council!

Any reference obtained from this server to a specific product, process, or service does not constitute or imply an endorsement by USCGA or the United States Government of the product, process, or service, or its producer or provider. The views and opinions expressed in any referenced document do not necessarily state or reflect those of USCGA or the United States Government.
Neither USCGA, the United States government, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, or assumes any legal liability for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information from this server or the links to servers via uscga.edu.

Contact Information

Superintendent’s Council for Cyber Education and Training
CDR Joseph Benin
USCGA Cyber Council Chair
(860) 444-8282
Joseph.T.Benin@uscga.edu
LT Katelyn Waddle
USCGA Cyber Council Vice Chair
(860) 701-6528
Katelyn.E.Waddle@uscga.edu
CGA Badge
Links from these pages to non-Coast Guard sites are provided as a customer service and do not represent any implicit or explicit endorsement by the United States Coast Guard of any commercial or private issues or products presented there.