University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu students finished with an overall ranking of 8th in the nation in the “Experienced Students” bracket of the National Cyber League (NCL), a biannual cybersecurity competition.

The Cyber Power Rankings — which are for the NCL fall 2024 season, with competitions that were held Oct. 25 to Nov. 10 — were created by Cyber Skyline in partnership with the NCL. Every year, over 10,000 students from more than 500 colleges and universities and 100 high schools across the U.S. participate in the NCL competitions, according to the Cyber Skyline website.

These rankings represent the ability of students from these schools to perform real-world cybersecurity tasks on the Cyber Skyline platform. Students had to identify hackers from forensic data, pentest and audit vulnerable websites, recover from ransomware attacks, and more, according to the website.

“We congratulate our cybersecurity students on their achievements and thank them for representing the University of Hawai‘i–West O‘ahu through their hard work, dedication, teamwork, and aloha,” said Michael Miranda, associate professor of Information Security at UH West O‘ahu.

The UH West O‘ahu NCL Team was guided by UH West O‘ahu Cybersecurity lecturer and alumnus Anthony Eich, who honed the students’ skills to meet the challenges they faced in the NCL competition.

Unlike previous years, the team decided to enter the more challenging “Experienced Students” bracket, where the UH West O‘ahu undergraduate team faced graduate students and advanced students with three or more years of work experience from colleges nationwide.

In this highly competitive bracket, the UH West O‘ahu NCL Team, comprised of five smaller teams, finished with a Team Rank of 7 out of the 532 university teams participating in the “Experienced Students” bracket. When combining the individual and participation scores, the UH West O‘ahu NCL Team’s overall ranking was 8th.

Eich said he is incredibly proud of the UH West O‘ahu team’s outstanding achievement.

“This performance is a testament to the hard work, dedication, and collaborative spirit of our students,” Eich said. “It stands as one of the best collective efforts I’ve seen in my time at UH West O‘ahu, and it’s exciting to see our Cyber Warriors continue to excel at such a high level. This accomplishment is truly a reflection of their skill and commitment to cybersecurity excellence.”

Other highlights from the NCL fall 2024 competition include:

• Of UH West O‘ahu’s five smaller teams that participated in the Team Game, four of the five teams ranked in the top 100, with the UH West O‘ahu Red Team placing 9th out of the 532 teams in the “Experienced Students” bracket and 27th out of 5,425 university teams overall.
• UH West O‘ahu’s top individual scorer was Nyla Boneza, who placed 117th out of 9,174 competitors, which is the largest field ever in an NCL competition.

The UH West O‘ahu NCL teams and members are:

• UH West O‘ahu Red Team: Captain Nyla Boneza, Blix Hazen, Branden Ramos, Joel Kawamae, Neo Hazen, Forrest Schank, and Chloe Kurashima (Team Game rank 9th place of 532)
• UH West O‘ahu Pueo: Captain Aaron Winder, Christian Mary Lagua, Raymart Paluyo, Alia Keuma, Timothy Dixon, Jaiden Cabales, and Chyson Pena (Team Game rank 88th place of 532)
• UH West O‘ahu Koa: Captain Jessica Sheryn Fe Benito, Kalani Anderson, Chathurika Arachchige, Jazmine Lewis, Paige Soma, Derek Chee, and Deven Michael Estomago (Team Game rank 83rd place of 532)
• UH West Oahu Kai: Captain Tariq Sims, Marco Lactaoen, Nick Malae, Jamie Wright, Thane Rodrigues, Matthew Schaefer, and Anna Paguirigan (Team Game rank 128th place of 532)
• UH West O‘ahu Honu: Captain Christopher Harris, Zachary Cacal, Kevin Lanier, Tyler Okinishi, Craig Holiday, and Charles Leigh (Team Game rank 91st place of 532)