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BURLINGTON – Officials are using a global competition to groom high school students to help the country defend against cyber threats. Twenty-six teams from North Carolina competed this year, including one from Burlington that's defending a second place finish from last year.

"There are attacks daily against all of our critical infrastructure, against the government, private sector, against everybody," said Lt. Neal Gay, of the Civil Air Patrol.

The Burlington and Apex civil air patrol are two of the 26 North Carolina teams competing this year. The Air Force created the game to promote STEM subjects in American high schools. The goal is to fill the void of qualified professionals in the defense industry and prevent what many see as the biggest threat to national security – cyber warfare.

"If you are a foreign government and you really want to do harm to the U.S., you don't have to invade us anymore. You just have to invade our cyber systems,” Gay said.

Their gaming skills not only give the participants a leg up in the classroom, but a head start on a promising future.

"This is what our nation is becoming, so this is not only helping you for high school or just having this knowledge, it's setting you up for the rest of your life,” student Josh Jordan said.