Fredericton middle school selected for national cyber competition

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Two teams from a Fredericton middle school will have the chance to show their cybersecurity skills at the national level.

The CyberDragons and the Firewall Fighters of Nashwaaksis Middle School have been selected to compete in the Canadian CyberTitan Nationals from May 8-9. The competition teaches teams skills as they work together to secure systems and deal with simulated cyber attacks.

Nashwaaksis Middle School’s teams are two of three middle school teams that will attend this event. Technology teacher Gary Gautreau said they’ll also compete against high school teams from across Canada.

They are the only two teams from Atlantic Canada to qualify for the event.

“It’s a great program to have, it does involve a lot of work because the competition itself is mainly geared towards high school,” said Gautreau. “It takes a unique individual, a middle school student to follow through because there’s so much time, research, reading, (and) problem-solving involved.”

Gautreau said the school has been involved in these competitions for the past seven years with him at the helm coaching. He said in that time, 13 of their teams have finished in the top three nationally, including four first-place finishes.

The CyberDragons include team captain Caleb Jeffries, Jude Clowater, and Jneid Eljneid.

The Firewall Fighters features team captains Kyle Dick and Morgan Weatherhead, Zach Bangay, Owen Chambers and Simon Jamer.

The CyberDragons won nationals last year, and hope to repeat this year.

“I was super happy to go to the nationals, and this year, I think I’m going to set goals for myself to do better in the overall rankings,” said Grade 8 student Jeffries.

He said he’s always wondered how computers worked and how they’re coded, and when he saw the club, he decided to try it out and ended up liking it, including the problem-solving, and researching to fix problems.

CyberTitan is part of the larger CyberPatriot competition that’s sponsored by the United States Air Force. Worldwide, there over 5,000 CyberPatriot teams.

Morgan Weatherhead is in Grade 6, and found out about the club through their sister.

“I’ve made a lot of new friends, and I’ve learned a lot of new skills.”

Weatherhead said the biggest thing they learned in this club is how to do research.

Gautreau discussed the importance of having these types of programs available for students. He said part of this importance is the amount of openings in the cybersecurity world in terms of jobs.

As of 2022, over 25,000 cybersecurity jobs were unfulfilled in Canada, and 3.5 million worldwide.

“Even if these kids decided this is not what they want to do, they are learning and growing up in a digital age,” said Gautreau. “They are learning the basic skills required to help keep themselves safer online and keep their identity safe and when they’re older.”