On the second floor of his house, Commanding Officer Matteus Juza (12) scans his computer for malware, clicking through different screens to determine the root cause of the virus. Alongside his teammates, he’s racing against the clock to beat three scenarios of cybersecurity failures. This is the state round of CyberPatriot, a national cybersecurity competition for high school and middle school students, Dec. 12. In CyberPatriot tournaments, teams meet in-person to collaborate on three virtual “images”: hypothetical operating systems in which the competitors must find and fix vulnerabilities. 

Every two to three weeks, Westview NJROTC competes in the CyberPatriot All Service division, where NJROTC units across the nation go against each other. After qualifying for the State round, the NJROTC CyberPatriot team entered 13 competitors across an A and B team. Though they faced a challenging state round, the team broke into top 30 competition teams for the tournament. Based on recent performances, they are currently ranked in the top 7% of all NJROTC units. 

Compared to NJROTC’s more physical aspects, CyberPatriot is highly analytical. Juza said it provides participating cadets an opportunity to gain hands-on cybersecurity experience.

“[CyberPatriot] is introductory to cybersecurity, so it’s great for new learners,” Juza said. “Cybersecurity ensures that your online networks and personal data are always safe. It impacts real people, and learning how to do it can make your computer infrastructure less vulnerable to these attacks.”

The process of going through a CyberPatriot “image” is long, typically lasting around four hours. 

“It’s a lot of investigative work,” Juza said. “First, you need to assess what’s wrong with the computer, which is often malware, viruses, or incorrect policies. But you also have to be conscious of technicalities like backdoors, which are vulnerabilities within specific programs. After finding these issues, you need to rectify them.”

In this investigative process, Platoon Commander and CyberPatriot team member Asher Hannaman (11) said he found enjoyment.

“CyberPatriot is really fun,” Hannaman said. “I joined because I wanted to try more things in the unit, and [working with] computers is really cool. Getting to place, going to states, the entire process is fun.”

Since the 2024-2025 school year, Juza has been hosting the virtual tournaments at his house. Juza said hosting the tournaments has become a responsibility he is glad to shoulder.

“I’m fortunate enough to have all the spare computers needed for tournaments [at home],” Juza said. “Initially, we started hosting [tournaments] at my house because I had no pets and had all the materials. But now, I see it as my responsibility to make sure the team can operate effectively. This way, we are confident that we will have a consistent computing environment.”

Hannaman said he values the community building that the team offers.

“[CyberPatriot] gives you the chance to connect with a lot of people in the unit,” Hannaman said. “We get to know them better and hang out with them outside a school setting. Since we’re all working on CyberPatriot, it gives us something to bond over together.”

Juza said competing in CyberPatriot has fostered his continuing interests in computer science.

“CyberPatriot involves a lot of work and intuition, but the networking part of it is especially complex,” Juza said. “I fell down a rabbit hole of simulated computer servers and networking, and it inspired me to learn how to build my own computer server. I even took a computer science course at UC San Diego. So CyberPatriot is where I discovered my passion for computer engineering.”

Hannaman said the variety of activities the unit offers is highly valuable to cadets.

“There are so many options when it comes to [NJROTC],” Hannaman said. “We have a marksmanship team, a CyberPatriot team, and an academic team, so there are many diverse opportunities. This can give people a motivation to join and explore the options.”

At the state round, the team struggled against unfamiliar images. Despite this, Juza said he is proud of the team’s growth this season.

“Sometimes, in CyberPatriot, you get thrown something you’ve never seen before,” Juza said. “It becomes a matter of how you approach the problem, how you find a new solution on the spot, which can be difficult. But I’m still happy with the progress we’ve made this year. I’m very optimistic for this team next year.”

Over the years, NJROTC CyberPatriot team has been significantly improving their performance. Juza said he looks forward to seeing how far the team will go.

“In my freshman year, we barely made the lowest tier, but we started to improve from there,” Juza said. “This year, we are in the top 7% of all ROTC units, placing us at top 25 in the nation. We keep improving. As Commanding Officer, my job is to make sure that the team keeps going, and that’s not just about while I am here. I still want to see this team succeed afterwards. So, it’s my job to make sure that they have what they need to continue succeeding.”