CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT 12.09.2020 –
Camp Arifjan, KUWAIT – The 2020 Best Cyber Warrior competition came to a close on Thursday, December 3, 2020. Participants from multiple countries took place in the event, which was possible to accomplish with lower risk of COVID-19 contamination because it was virtual.
“The event provides the opportunity and venue for cybersecurity experts from the U.S. and regional partners to put their cybersecurity skills to the test,” said U.S. Army Major Victor Collado, United States Army Central’s cybersecurity officer in charge. “Making sure we are all capable of defending our networks.”
The competition focused on the partnership between cybersecurity experts from USARCENT, coalition and regional partners and fostered a competitive learning environment through multiple challenges including reverse engineering, web security, digital forensics and network security.
2020 marked the sixth iteration of the Best Cyber Warrior, and the participants included teams from the U.S., Jordan, Australia, Kuwait and Iraq. This was Kuwait’s second time participating and Iraq’s first, increasing the strength of our partner nations.
“We solicited participation by reaching out to our host nations with personal letters, on-site visits with OMC (Office of Military Cooperation) personnel, and targeting specific communications to senior signal and cyber leaders around the globe,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Tina Boyd, Commanding General of the 335th Signal Command (Theater) (Provisional). “We rebranded the event by highlighting the changes that made it more attractive to our target market, our regional partners.”
Thirty-four teams participated in the challenge, and first place went to the team “noob_noob,” a team comprised of multiple Army organizations.
"The Best Cyber Warrior isn’t just a competition; it allows military organizations the opportunity to discover where improvements can be made," said Collado.
“It allows us to look ourselves as cybersecurity experts and identify our level of proficiency,” he said. “It also allows us to identify what skills we need to improve our cybersecurity readiness in, and how to create the best posture to react to cybersecurity threats.”