Cyber Explorers Program
Santa Teresa Highschool Program
Cyber Explorers is a 7-week immersive program aimed at introducing Cyber Security discipline to high school and middle school students. The program doesn’t assume any exposure to computers and computer science. The first 3 sessions are tabletop fun games and exercises introducing concepts of Cyber Security like Cryptography, Network Security, Defense in Depth, Incident Detection, Incident Response et al.
The students will start early in the program on a team project which could be a cybersecurity-related puzzle, poster or a project. This is a deliverable which students are expected to showcase in the Cyber Explorers finale - which would be attended by parents, teachers and potentially rest of the school.
In the latter half of the program after a session on Ethics and signing of a displayable ethics pledge, we introduce hands-on exercises and threats which students will replicate in a lab environment. We start the labs with a gentle introduction to shell and operating systems and then drop into network security, log analysis and forensics.
Its a wrap! The Cyber Explorers Program Demo day was on Thursday May 23, from 5-7pm at Santa Teresa High School - Multi Purpose Room, 6150 Snell Ave, San Jose, CA 95123. Its a wrap!
Program Details
| Session | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction to Cyber Security (Hands-on No Computers) (Cypher-1-3, Cryptography & Steganography). Real world attacks analyzed (1-3 Printed) Video Content | 1. Written exercise |
| 2 | Introduction to Cyber Security through Board Games (Hands-on No Computers) (IR - Scenarios/ Role Play) | 1. We covered five board games - Security Cards, Dx03D, Cards Against Security, Stratego, and Hacker. Details below. |
| 3 | Simulating A Cyber Security Range with an Escape Room (Hands-on No Computers) Project- Puzzle/Posters/Program with a team of 3-5 |
Our Escape Room is Harry Potter themed |
| 4 | Ethics Personal Security (Password Manager, Do Not Track, Phishing awareness,..) | Ethics exercises |
| 5 | Introduction to Shell - with a game (ls, cat, grep, pipe, nmap, …) | 1. Session #5 Install PuTTY 2. OverTheWire Bandit Challenge 3. Session #5 Unix Command Challenge - Challenge Form 4. Session #5 Optional Challenge - Challenge Directory ZIP 5. Project Ideas |
| 6 | Cyber Threats Demonstrated On Networks (WEP Attack & Wireshark) | 1. Project Ideas Excerpt 2. Session #6 Network Security Follow along |
| 7 | Red Teaming - Cyber Threats Demonstrated On Individuals (Rubber Ducky) | 1. Project Ideas Excerpt Review & Plan Formation 2. Session #7 Red Teaming Follow along 3. Announcements 1. 5-Minute Team Presentations next week 2. Explorers Escape room in San Francisco Public Library |
| 8 | Introduction to Physical Security | 1. Project Background Research & Preparing for Tuesday presentations Project Document 2. TestOut Lesson 4 Physical Security Labsim 3. Announcements 1. 5-Minute Team Presentations Tuesday, May 7th 2. Explorers Escape room in San Francisco Public Library |
| 9 | Team Project - Session 2 & Introduction to Forensics | 1. Project Milestone - 5 Minute Presentations Project Proposal & Plan 2. Forensics exercise with disk data analysis - Follow along 3. Announcements 1. Volunteers for San Francisco Public Library Explorers Escape Room |
| 10 | Introduction to Data science for CyberSecurity | 1. Project work - Prototype Development 2. Data Science for CyberSecurity- 1. Access logs, OS logs, Application logs, Service logs, syslogs 2. Introduction to Intrusion Detection 3. Announcements 1. Cyber Patriots Application 2. Volunteer for the Cyber Explorer Escape Room @ Bay Area Maker Faire |
| 11 | Team Project - Session 3 - students will work on team projects | 1. Project work Feedback & Presentation plan 2. Announcements 1. Invitation for Cyber Explorers Demo Day, May 23 5-7pm, Multipurpose Room Santa Teresa High School, San Jose, CA. 2. Volunteer for the Cyber Explorer Escape Room @ Bay Area Maker Faire |
| 12 | Introduction to Career Paths in Cyber Security | 1. Conversation with Mel Masterson, AirBnB Security 2. Project Milestone - Final presentation preparation. 3. Announcements 1. Invitation for Cyber Explorers Demo Day, May 23 5-7pm, Multipurpose Room Santa Teresa High School, San Jose, CA. 2. Volunteer for the Cyber Explorer Escape Room @ Bay Area Maker Faire 3. We will work on Cyber Patriots images (OS & Networking) next session. |
| 13 | Lab session tailored to a Cyber Patriots Challenge | 1. TestLab - Cyber Patriots 1. ISO images VMWare Player - problems (45 mins) 2. Packet Tracer Image - Cisco Packet Tracer (30mins) |
| 14 | Project Demonstration & Cyber Security Topic Presentations, Team Presentations |
Through the Cyber Explorers, we aim at having a strong industry partnership using guest lectures, hackathons and exposing students to career paths. One of the session labs will be tailored as a Cyber Patriots test - which will introduce students to the Cyber Patriots program and other relevant national initiatives.
The program finale will showcase student work and projects to a broad audience. During the duration of the program, we will offer an extensive cybersecurity library and a raspberry pi based project lab environment. We strive to align this program to other industry efforts and also offer a hackathon.
Board Games Introduced
- Security Cards: This game gives players an opportunity to explore cybersecurity threats from multiple perspectives. The cards have four categories: human impact, adversary’s motivation, adversary’s resources, adversary’s methods. Within these categories, the cards give example scenarios and ideas to jumpstart group games and discussion.
- Dx03D: A tabletop turn-based security game focused on informally introducing students to cybersecurity concepts. The flow of the game requires players to act as attackers at some points, compromising and looting the other team’s infrastructure, and as defenders other times, attempting to patch exploitations and secure against further attacks.
- Cards Against Security: This game is a remix of the popular Cards Against Humanity card game centered around security concepts. The adlib style cards have been reworked to introduce security terms and concepts.
- Stratego: Stratego is a turn-based strategy board game where opposing armies attempt to secure the other team’s flag. This game has a defensive and offensive component where you must strategize where to place your pieces and where to attack your opponent.
- Hacker: In Hacker, players work together to solve progressively harder puzzles. These puzzles follow the flow of creating a program, attack incident and subsequent incident response. As the puzzles get more difficult other obstacles are added forcing players to continuously think outside of the box.
Project Ideas & Process
- Enhance the Cyber Explorers escape room
- Develop a poster against Cyber Bullying & Teen education.
- Develop a poster and tools for personal cyber security - tools, image guide etc.
- Work on the Cyber Security games - Security & Privacy cards, Dx0D
- Ideas from Students