"Black hat hackers" are the enemy of the computer network field, breaking into computer systems of different companies and groups and reeking havoc. Two groups of area high school students -- one each from City High and West High -- are working to become "white hat hackers," preventing such attacks through network security.

The two schools will be among 12 high schools from across Iowa who will compete Friday and Saturday in the Iowa High School Cyber Defense Competition at Iowa State University in Ames. In the contest, the teams will spend 15 hours running a computer security network for a fictional dot-com company and ensuring no unauthorized users, from ISU computer science students and a "supercomputer" designed to look for holes in the protection, enter the system, said Dominic Audia, City High's Cisco Network Academy instructor and a West High biology teacher who is overseeing the Iowa City high school teams.

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