American intellectual property has become highly valuable for terrorists groups and organizations. But there's an exercise underway at West Point to help protect our Country. YNN's Elaina Athans has the story.

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WEST POINT, N.Y. -- During a time of war, a defense tactic that's becoming increasingly important is being learned inside a classroom.

West Point cadets being challenged on defending a country stationed at a computer. The Academy takes part in a Cyber Defense Competition. It's aimed at keeping information systems secure.

"We should under estimate a terrorist or any other organization who wants to do harm to us using computer network," said Colonel David Raymond.

West Point is competing along with other military academies, including Army's number one rival, Navy. The exercise is run by the National Security Agency.

"The NSA's job is basically to come, infiltrate the network, change stuff around, mess with it, do all sorts of bad things. Our job is to protect it and make sure they can’t do a thing," said West Point senor Scott Mead.

Cadets participating in this competition will likely use these skills shortly down the line. Most expect to be deploying after graduation.

"We have people who are doing network defense in deployed areas in areas like Iraq and Afghanistan to protect those networks against terrorist organizations," said Raymons. "These cadets will be in those areas soon.”

While war looms for some of the students and learned lessons will ultimately be tested, for now, they're concentrating on a competition win.

The exercise runs until Friday and West Point has done well in the past. The Academy has received more trophies than any other military school.