The Strauss Center at The University of Texas at Austin partnered with the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative to host another regional round of the Atlantic Council’s renowned cybersecurity policy competition, the Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge.

This stand-alone event took place at the University of Texas School of Law on February 4-5, 2023, with teams vying for a title that includes, not just bragging rights, but also a cash prize for the top three teams (not to mention a deeply-enriching learning experience for all participants).This year featured a highly competitive application process, out of which 17 teams from universities and colleges across the United States attended.

Included in the two-day event were opportunities for professional development from cybersecurity experts in the public and private sector, as well as a keynote discussion held by Assistant National Cyber Director for Strategy & Research in the Office of the National Cyber Director, Harry Krejsa, and moderated by Strauss Director Adam Klein.

Strauss scholar in residence Chinmayi Sharma joined cybersecurity expert Matt Tait in rounding out Saturday with an information session on careers in cybersecurity.

The Black Hawks from the U.S. Military Academy West Point took first place.

University of Texas Austin team Kyber Pepsis Grossa took second place.

The Cyber Super Girls from Stanford University took third place.

The Strauss Center in conjunction with the Atlantic Council are proud to congratulate all teams who participated in the 2023 Austin Regional Cyber 9/12 Strategy Challenge, and extend gratitude to the judges and coaches who took this weekend to help each team.

How does the competition work?

This is a simulation-based, judge-graded competition in which teams consisting of three to four students (who can be either graduate students or undergraduate students, from any disciplinary background) collaborate to provide policy analysis and recommendations in response to an evolving, fictional fact-pattern relating to cyber crisis and conflict. The competition is designed to reward substantive knowledge across a range of areas, including any number of policy domains as well as insights from technology, business, and law. And of course, the competition also rewards both written and spoken communication skills. The event is on the record and proceedings may be photographed and recorded for public use.

More specifically:

Each team will draft written policy briefs in response to this initial scenario, and those written responses must be submitted at a later determined date. The first-round grade will be determined by the oral presentations that will then occur on the competition’s first day. The oral presentation for each team begins with a ten-minute presentation to judges, followed by ten minutes of answering questions from the judges. The judges’ score of the qualifying round oral presentations will be combined with the team score from the more detailed written policy brief submitted in advance of the competition, and approximately 50% of teams will advance to the semi-final round on day two based on those combined results.

We will announce the semi-finalists at the end of day one, and at that point, we also will distribute an updated intelligence report that expands upon the original scenario. The semi-finalist teams will then have the evening to refine and amend their analysis as they deem appropriate, with a new round of oral presentations taking place beginning on day two. Three finalist teams will be selected based on the results of that round, and at that point they will receive a third and final intelligence report, detailing further changes to the scenario. The finalist teams will have only a very short amount of time to use the new information to revise their policy responses. The finalists then will deliver a ten-minute oral presentation, followed by ten minutes to answer direct questions from a panel of judges.

Preparation materials, including a starter pack for your team and past competition scenarios featuring award-winning policy recommendations can be found on Atlantic Council’s website here.

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