3 Bossier City students win in nationwide cyber security competition

Watch video and read original article on KTBS.com.

WYSIWYG

It was a virtual competition held over a three-day span in early January. It tested their knowledge, but also hopefully sparked interest in cyber jobs.

Liam Denehan, a junior at Airline High School in Bossier City, came in third place, going up against 1,424 other high school students nationwide. Denehan won a $1,000 technology award for his school. 

“It was it was extremely challenging. I mean, some of the questions were like crazy,” said Denehan. “It encourages out of the box thinking like stuff that you wouldn't think of just sitting around, you know, you have to actively use your brain and figure out things. It's like a puzzle,” 

 Local student winners:

• 3rd Place – Liam Denehan from Airline High School in Bossier City, LA ($1,000 technology award)

• 4th Place – Ramie Kasabali from Bossier Parish School for Technology and Innovative Learning in Bossier City, LA ($750 technology award)

• 5th Place – Sean Bell from Bossier Parish School for Technology and Innovative Learning in Bossier City, LA ($500 technology award)

Chuck Gardner with Cyber.org said the company develops curriculum and resources for educators to teach cyber security across the nation. A grant from the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency made this competition possible.

“Some of these challenges are pretty tough, involving thousands of lines of text and thousands of lines of code that they have to fish through to try and find what we call a flag,” said Gardner. “It's important that we bring this kind of opportunity and recognition to students who are going to be the next generation of workforce."

Currently, there are over 2,500 cyber security opportunities in Louisiana.

Cyber.org also partnered with the National Governor’s Association and Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to host the competition.

This article originally ran on ktbs.com.