Last fall, the Gulf Shores High School (GSHS) cybersecurity competition team entered a nationwide competition for the first time in placed in the top 26.7% of participants.

Students placed in the gold division, landing in 821st place out of 30,074 teams at the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition.

GSHS computer science and engineering teacher, Jamie McClung, said this was a "remarkable achievement for a debut performance."

The competition, held during fall semester last year, tasks students with securing virtual networks against simulated cybersecurity threats. The challenges are sponsored by the Air Force Association.

"Teams work under time pressure to identify vulnerabilities, patch systems and maintain critical services, gaining real-world cybersecurity skills along the way," McClung said. "The team's strong finishes demonstrate their growing expertise and commitment to this rapidly evolving field."

During December, the cybersecurity team at GSHS also competed in the Lt. Governor's Cyber Cup, a statewide competition where students to solve cybersecurity problems with topics like network security, ciphers, python, ethics, risks, adversarial thinking and more.

The students placed 17th overall in the competition; on one day of the competition, they placed second overall.

Two teams from GSHS entered the Lt. Governor's Cyber Cup for the first time last year, where they scored fourth and sixth place overall out of 36 teams.

Next steps for these students is to take part in the University of Alabama's Capture the Flag (CTF) Competition in February, where the team will solve cybersecurity puzzles. The two teams also entered this competition for the first time last year and one of the teams placed second overall.