Cyber Knights is a club at Bishop O’Connell High School where students compete in teams based on grade level to find and fix cybersecurity vulnerabilities in virtual operating systems. The students in the senior team, ‘Team Seniors,’ are Marco Fernandez-Ribas (the President of the Cyber Knights Club), Dominic King (the Vice-President of the Cyber Knights Club), Zach Babka, Pio Nguyen, Jared Viani, and Nicholas Cancho. ‘Team Juniors’ is represented by Madison Cervenak, Elissa Thomas, Aidan Hines, Owen Caputo, and Miles Woodcock. Ashley Kroeger represents ‘Team Freshmen.’ Cyber Knights train for events using NetAcademy, an online learning course that teaches participants about how to stop and defend against cybercrimes. 

The Cyber Knight teams participated in the CyberPatriot XV event, where teams competed against other high school teams. This event consisted of three rounds, with a state championship round at the end. During the first three rounds, ‘Team Seniors’ finished in the top 12% in the country with an all-time Bishop O’Connell record of 307/330 points. Even with the challenges made to be more difficult, this outstanding performance allowed ‘Team Seniors’ to compete at the platinum tier for states, the highest tier of competition. ‘Team Juniors’ and ‘Team Freshmen’ qualified for Silver tier status for states, two tiers below ‘Team Seniors.’ In the State Round, ‘Team Seniors’ scored in the top half of the platinum level. This was the best placement for any O’Connell team ever. ‘Team Juniors’ were able to finish in the top third at the silver level. Even though they qualified for the State Round, ‘Team Freshmen’ were unfortunately unable to compete due to illness.

The CyberKnights will compete in two more competitions: the CyberQuest Competition on March 4, 2023, and the CodeQuest Competition on April 22, 2023.

The Cyber Knights Club is still open for any Bishop O’Connell students who want to join. If interested, contact Mrs. Gonsalves at [email protected].

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Ashley Kroeper