DHS searching for vendors to help host President’s Cup cyber competition
The Department of Homeland Security is looking for contractors capable of supporting the annual President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition.
DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a request for information this week “to solicit information from industry that can provide President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competition (PCCC) support services.”
Launched in 2019, the President’s Cup is a national event to “identify, challenge, and reward the best cybersecurity talent in the federal workforce” based on elements of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Framework, according to CISA. The competition was created by a 2019 executive order on the federal cyber workforce, and the third iteration will run sometime this fall.
The RFI asks industry vendors to share information on their experience hosting online competitions — particularly those involving cybersecurity challenges like capture the flag events — providing cybersecurity training information, and developing video games, as well as generalized cybersecurity knowledge across their workforce.
It also asks questions about vendors’ capability to support the competition’s specific needs, like creating and testing “over 70 competition challenges within 2-3 months,” open-sourcing all content and providing 24/7 support.
Interested parties have until Sept. 8 to submit responses.
The 2020 President’s Cup ran from August 2020 to Feb. 25, 2021, hosting more than 1,400 participants and 250 teams in a virtual format. Participants competed in capture the flag challenges, as well as a so-called “Save the World” scenario, which featured mock news broadcasts about a snowstorm taking out a city’s critical infrastructure. The winning team came from the Army’s 780th Military Intelligence Brigade.
CISA hasn’t decided yet if the 2021 event will be in-person or virtual.
