CyberStart America, a free online cybersecurity competition for Virginia high school-aged students, opens Sunday. Winning students can earn prizes, scholarships, and recognition for their schools.

The CyberStart America program is a series of online challenges that allow students to act as cyber protection agents, to solve cybersecurity-related puzzles and explore topics such as code breaking, programming, networking and digital forensics.

All Virginia students in grades 9-12 are invited to participate. Experience or knowledge in information technology or cybersecurity is not necessary to compete.

High school students may register for the program and may begin playing the CyberStart Game at midnight on Nov. 15. They may continue playing, and invite their friends to join them through Feb. 28, 2021.

The National Cyber Scholarship Foundation anticipates awarding $2 million in scholarships to 600 high-scoring students across the nation who participate in the competition, a rel...