Abstract: The demand for cybersecurity professionals continues to be a pressing need for the global workforce. Institutions of higher learning have been launching new cybersecurity programs to help meet this demand. This research describes how an undergraduate cybersecurity program that launched in the Fall of 2020 used free and open-source software, cloud computing, and a domain name registrar to create a persistent cybersecurity competition for the students with high impact in National Cyber League rankings at a low financial cost. This competition has been available both on-campus and off-campus for students to access, compete, and ultimately prepare themselves for national cybersecurity competitions, such as the National Cyber League. This solution has served 182 students with 456 challenges across several categories such as: Network Analysis, Web, Open Source Intelligence, Log Analysis, Digital Forensics and Incident Response, Cryptography, Password Cracking, Current & Past, and Miscellaneous. Over the past five years, this solution has allowed for challenges to be solved 11,633 times in 32,141 attempts by the students and has been identified as an important resource in preparing students to place as high as fifth in the United States of America (out of 500+ colleges and universities) in the National Cyber League. This research will highlight platform details and will also share student feedback about how this persistent cybersecurity competition prepared students to perform against students from other institutions.

Keywords: Cybersecurity, Competition, Gamification, Student satisfaction, Open source

Download This Article: JISE2026v37n1pp98-132.pdf

Recommended Citation: Grech, B. P. (2026). Creating a Persistent Competition to Prepare Undergraduate Cybersecurity Students for National Cyber League Competitions. Journal of Information Systems Education, 37(1), 98-132. https://doi.org/10.62273/GKDZ1277