Skip to main content    

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

**Official websites use .gov**              A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.            

**Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**              A **lock** (  LockA locked padlock) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.            

https://www.nist.gov/itl/applied-cybersecurity/nice/nice-framework-resource-center/nice-framework-success-story-national

            -  Topics  -  All Topics 
-  Advanced communications 
-  Artificial intelligence 
-  Bioscience 
-  Buildings and construction 
-  Chemistry 
-  Climate 
-  Cybersecurity 
-  Electronics 
-  Energy 
-  Environment 
-  Fire 
-  Forensic science 
-  Health 
-  Information technology 
-  Infrastructure 
-  Manufacturing 
-  Materials 
-  Mathematics and statistics 
-  Metrology 
-  Nanotechnology 
-  Neutron research 
-  Performance excellence 
-  Physics 
-  Public safety 
-  Resilience 
-  Standards 
-  Transportation 
 
            -  Publications 
            -  Labs & Major Programs  -  Laboratories    -  Communications Technology Laboratory 
  -  Engineering Laboratory 
  -  Information Technology Laboratory 
  -  Material Measurement Laboratory 
  -  Physical Measurement Laboratory 
-  User Facilities    -  NIST Center for Neutron Research 
  -  CNST NanoFab 
-  Research Test Beds 
-  Research Projects 
-  Tools & Instruments 
-  Major Programs    -  Baldrige Performance Excellence Program 
  -  CHIPS for America Initiative 
  -  Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) 
  -  Office of Advanced Manufacturing 
  -  Special Programs Office 
  -  Technology Partnerships Office 
 
            -  Services & Resources  -  Standards and Measurements    -  Calibration Services 
  -  Laboratory Accreditation (NVLAP) 
  -  Quality System 
  -  Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) 
  -  Standards.gov 
  -  Time Services 
  -  Office of Weights and Measures 
-  Software 
-  Data    -  Chemistry WebBook 
  -  National Vulnerability Database 
  -  Physical Reference Data 
  -  Standard Reference Data (SRD) 
-  Storefront 
-  License & Patents 
-  Computer Security Resource Center (CSRC) 
-  NIST Research Library 
 
            -  News & Events  -  News 
-  Events 
-  Blogs 
-  Feature Stories 
-  Awards 
-  Video Gallery 
-  Image Gallery 
-  Media Contacts 
 
            -  About NIST  -  About Us    -  Leadership 
  -  Organization Structure 
  -  Budget & Planning 
-  Contact Us 
-  Visit 
-  Careers    -  Student programs 
-  Work with NIST 
-  History    -  NIST Digital Archives 
  -  NIST Museum 
  -  NIST and the Nobel 
-  Educational Resources 
 

Applied Cybersecurity DivisionNICE

## NICE Framework Resource Center

-  Getting Started 
-  Current Version 
-  Resources  Expand or Collapse    -  Users Group 
  -  Employer Resources 
  -  Education and Training Provider Resources 
  -  Learner Resources 
  -  Success Stories  Expand or Collapse      -  Submission Guidance 
  -  Framework in Focus 
  -  Presentations 
-  Playbook for Workforce Frameworks 
-  About  Expand or Collapse    -  History 
  -  FAQ  Expand or Collapse      -  K12 FAQ 
  -  Revision Process 
  -  Latest Updates 
  -  Ways to Engage 
-  NICE Homepage 

## Connect with us

GovDeliveryLinkedInTwitter

# NICE Framework Success Story: National Cyber League

## Share

Facebook

Linkedin

Twitter

Email

By Cyber Skyline*Use: Measure Skills*

View this Success Story as a PDF

----

**ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE**

The National Cyber League (NCL) was founded as a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 2011 by an alliance of public agencies dedicated to developing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. The NCL student competition is hosted by Cyber Skyline, an industry-leading cybersecurity cloud platform. Cyber Skyline enables students, faculty, and professionals to practice, develop, and measure individual and team technical cybersecurity skills at all skill levels.

NCL is an online, performance-based, learning- centered collegiate cybersecurity competition held twice a year during the academic spring and fall semesters. Nine skills categories give students the ability to challenge themselves across critical areas of knowledge that are aligned to the NIST NICE Cybersecurity Workforce Framework. The categories are:
                  - Open Source Intelligence
                  - Cryptography
                  - Log Analysis
                  - Password Cracking
                  - Network Traffic Analysis
                  - Scanning & Reconnaissance
                  - Web Application Exploitation
                  - Enumeration & Exploitation
                  - Forensics

NCL is both a competition and a community, with a dedicated Players Committee and Coaches Committee to provide student player and faculty coach support and learning resources.

**TIE-IN WITH THE NICE FRAMEWORK**

Mapping the NCL challenges to the NICE Framework allows student players and faculty coaches to quickly and easily understand an individual’s or a team’s areas of strength and weakness. The mapping further provides a common lexicon for industry employers to understand the relevant skills of the NCL participants, enabling recruiters and hiring managers to rapidly identify candidate skills and strengths. Overall, this alignment provides a pathway into cybersecurity careers, addressing the ever-increasing demand for cybersecurity professionals.

**DRIVERS**

The core goals of the NCL are to:
                  -  **Bridge the gap between curriculum to career**: Providing a scalable and interactive environment for hands-on application of classroom knowledge. 
                  -  **Promote inclusivit**y: Giving all students—no matter their knowledge level, background, or access to technology—the ability to demonstrate to prospective employers their mastery of cybersecurity concepts and skills. 
                  -  **Ensure industry relevancy**: Providing usable and simple reporting to help employers hire collegiate cybersecurity talent more easily. 

We recognized that using the NICE Framework as part of the competition would help us to achieve these goals.

**PROCESS**

Every challenge in the NCL is created to meet the skills requirements of the modern cybersecurity industry by observing trends in recent cybersecurity events and analyzing the latest threat feeds. As a result, challenges created for the NCL are inherently skills-based and require the student players to perform technical action to solve the challenge. Each challenge is mapped to the relevant NICE Framework Skills statements, which not only further emphasizes the skill-based approach but connects the challenge to a national framework of community- recognized cybersecurity skills.

In addition, the main mapping spreadsheet also shows the relationship between the identified NICE Framework Skill statements and NICE Framework Work Roles—establishing a connection between the challenges and the real-world work that employers require. These connections are shared with the players and employers on the NCL Scouting Report, as shown in Figure 1.
Credit:

**BENEFITS & IMPACT**
                  - The mapping of NCL challenges to the NICE Framework gives student players and their faculty coaches a new tool to focus on areas of strength or weakness.
                  - The mapping helps reinforce the relevancy the NCL challenges to real-world cybersecurity work. Students can utilize the mapping to explore career opportunities and see how their skills translate to real- world work roles.
                  - Using the NICE Framework helps the NCL team identify challenge areas lacking skill coverage, so that new challenges can be developed and incorporated to cover a wider range of cybersecurity skills.
                  - Employers who already leverage the NICE Framework can plug the NCL Scouting Report results into their existing workflow and hire qualified candidates more rapidly

----

##### CONTACT INFORMATION & RESOURCES

Contacts:David Zeichick, NCL Commissionerdzeichick [at] nationalcyberleague.com (dzeichick[at]nationalcyberleague[dot]com)

General Informationinfo [at] nationalcyberleague.com (info[at]nationalcyberleague[dot]com)

Websites:nationalcyberleague.orgcyberskyline.com/events/ncl

Cybersecurity education and workforce development

### HEADQUARTERS

301-975-2000

Webmaster | Contact Us | Our Other Offices

TwitterFacebookLinkedInInstagramYouTubeGiphyRSS FeedMailing List

Feedback

            -  Site Privacy 
            -  Accessibility 
            -  Privacy Program 
            -  Copyrights 
            -  Vulnerability Disclosure 
            -  No Fear Act Policy 
            -  FOIA 
            -  Environmental Policy 
            -  Scientific Integrity 
            -  Information Quality Standards 
            -  Commerce.gov 
            -  Science.gov 
            -  USA.gov 
            -  Vote.gov