CyberForce team finishes in Top 10 at annual national competition in Chicago

In only its second year of competition, Liberty University’s CyberForce squad recorded a Top 10 finish at the Department of Energy CyberForce Competition 2025 in Chicago last month.

The competition, held Nov. 14-15, provided students on 93 teams from 77 schools an opportunity to gain practical experience defending their systems from malicious software.  In the weeks leading up to competition, the team prepared a gameplan and developed a functioning website to protect and also make a “C-suite Panel Brief” video detailing security risks associated with a simulated cyber breach.  During the event, students were tasked with finding and reporting anomalies within the systems.

Last year, Liberty’s squad finished 43rd in a field of over 90 teams. Entering this year’s event, Center for Cyber Excellence Executive Director Dr. Richard Bansley challenged his team to best that performance with a top 20 placement. His students responded with a strong sixth-place finish.

“(The team’s success) lends national credibility to our cyber program,” Bansley said. “It means that when someone looks at Liberty, they don’t just see a Christian university; they see a university that is Christian and competitive. It builds confidence that the students are going to be able to work at whatever organization they go to because they have proven they have the passion, the talent, the character, and the skill to go out there and do cybersecurity.”

Bansley estimated CyberForce students dedicate around 200 hours each semester to prepare for the event. He said CyberForce differs from other Liberty cyber competition teams in that Ph.D. and graduate students can also participate as team members.

Team captain junior Hope Tan, who previously served on the captain of Liberty’s National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity (NCAE-C) competition team, credited CyberForce and other Liberty cybersecurity teams with preparing her to enter the workforce.

“Being part of one of Liberty’s cyber defense teams has been one of the best things I’ve done in my education,” she said. “This hands-on experience is typically harder to find in just classwork, so I’m really grateful Liberty and the Center for Cyber Excellence are so encouraging and supportive of us going out and getting these opportunities to learn a lot. I know not every school will support a program like this, and there is a lot that goes into it.”

“It was really encouraging to finish top six and was such a blessing,” she added. “I’m very grateful to my team members. They deserve so much of the credit. They brought awesome technical skills, and they are all amazing to work with. They have taught me so much.”

Through the competition, Bansley said the students lived out their faith by praying with one another and approaching every situation with joy, recognizing their ultimate goal wasn’t to win the competition but to glorify God through their actions. Tan said she even heard feedback from one of the competition organizers thanking the team for their positive attitude.

Chris Westling, who is pursuing his Master of Science in Cybersecurity, said he appreciated the opportunity to compete alongside his CyberForce teammates.

“The culture and the community we have amongst the cyber competition teams is really great,” he said. “I have learned so much from talking with other people in my competition team. They have been invaluable in my academic journey as far as learning different technologies, approaches to security, and different approaches to tradecraft that I would otherwise not know.”