DETROIT – A team of cyber hackers from Clinton High School earned first place honors, its name on a traveling trophy and a picture with Gov. Rick Snyder during the 2016 North American International Cyber Summit at Cobo Center Occt. 17.

Second place went to Airport High School in Carleton and third place to Cadillac High School.

Twenty-nine high school teams, and some 282 students, battled it out to win the High School Cyber Challenge. The ten finalist teams, comprised of three students each, completed challenges designed to test their knowledge of information technology and cybersecurity. The competition scores were based on the number of completed virtual challenges and highest demonstrated mastery of essential cybersecurity skills. The winning teams received award trophies during lunch at NAICS.

To earn a spot in the finals of the Cyber Challenge, the teams competed online in the first round, which was held September 26-29. Each day focused on a different topic, such as networking, programming, hacking and operating systems, and the challenges consisted of 20 multiple-choice questions. Round one was open-book style, in which students were encouraged to scour the internet to answer the questions.

PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS:

Airport High School – Carleton
Ann Arbor Huron High School – Ann Arbor
Ashley High School – Ashley
Bad Axe High School – Bad Axe
Bath High School – Bath Twp
Blended Learning Academies – Lansing
Bridgeport High School – Bridgeport
Buchanan High School – Buchanan
Cadillac High School – Cadillac
Caledonia High School – Caledonia
Capital Area Career Center – Mason
Clinton High School – Clinton
Frontier International Academy – Detroit
Genesee Career Institute – Flint
Greenville High School – Satterlee School – Greenville
Gull Lake High School – Richland
Heartlands Institute of Technology – Ionia
Kalamazoo Area Math & Science Center – Kalamazoo
Lapeer County Education & Technology Center – Attica
Lowell High School – Lowell
Manchester High School – Manchester
Marquette Senior High School – Marquette
Michigan Virtual School – Lansing
New Buffalo High School – New Buffalo
Ovid-Elsie High School – Elsie
Pentwater Public Schools – Pentwater
Pinckney Community High School – Pinckney
University Prep Science & Math High School – Detroit
Westwood High School – Ishpeming

The goal of next year’s High School Challenge is to make it bigger and better with more teams from across Michigan competing in the event.