Dexter Gerig knew how to game the game when he played “Age of Empires” with his older brother on their PC running Windows 98. Dexter could improvise his way to gathering food or strengthening armor at a pace most could not.

Beating big brother was not the goal. Neither were high scores. Dexter, his brother remembers, wanted to explore the possibilities of the computer and the game.

“A lot of people play video games to get good at games or beat the game or get a high score,” said Denning Gerig, Dexter’s older brother. “It was clear he didn’t care about that. He just wanted to do things the game didn’t want you to do.”

Years later, that curiosity led Dexter to major in computer science at Wichita State University and pursue a career in cybersecurity.

“Now seeing the kind of skillset he’s developed, it’s clear he had that way about him from a young age,” Denning said. “He understands technology and speaks that language.”

On April 5, Dexter, a junior at Wichita State, placed first in the Individual Event of the National Cyber League competition. 

He is a member of the Wichita State Linux Users Group, known as WuLug. Wichita State’s team of about 20 students will compete in the National Cyber League’s Team Game beginning on April 17.

Dexter scored 2,955 points (3,000 is a perfect score) and finished 35 points ahead of second place in the 5,350-person field. The competition, which spanned two days and eight hours, involved a series of 40 challenges with 155 questions.

One involved examining computer logs to determine intruders.

“You might have to answer questions about who might be intruders from the logs and when exactly did they do something malicious on the network,” Dexter said. “They will give you a large amount of people in the log files, and it’s up to you to sift through them and determine when exactly something interesting happened.”

Winning the competition is a resume-booster and enhances Dexter’s professional toolbox. The NCL Scouting Report helps the student and instructors measure their skills compared to industry standards and is also helpful when pursuing jobs or advanced degrees.

Fortunately, COVID-19 can’t stop these types of events, and the pandemic highlights the need for cybersecurity. The nation’s work and school largely moved to home internet networks over the past month, and that offers opportunities for hackers.

 “They’re rubbing their hands together,” Dexter said. “There’s been quite an uptick on personal attacks that people are using to try to break into these companies now that there are so many weak points with so many people working from home.”