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Cyber Discovery

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Cyber Discovery is a £20m UK Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport initiative created in partnership with SANS Institute[1] with the aim of getting children aged 13-18 interested in cyber security.[2][3] Started in 2017, each year the program has followed a similar pattern of 4 (often overlapping) stages.

CyberStart Assess

Every year, Assess has contained 14 new capture-the-flag style challenges. Students who perform well are invited to progress to Game and Essentials.

CyberStart Game

Game contains over 200 challenges, separated into 4 groups, known as 'bases'.[4] The challenges have a similar format to the ones in Assess, but with a much broader scope and increased difficulty. As the student progresses through the levels, the challenges become much more difficult. A 'Field manual' is provided which provides instructions on how to use certain tools and techniques. Challenges are completed by finding a flag, which awards a student with points equal to 100 times the level of the challenge. It is possible on every challenge to request a hint, which reduces the points gained from that challenge by half.

Headquarters

By far the largest base with 156 challenges split into 13 levels of increasing difficulty, HQ covers a wide variety of challenges including open-source intelligence, cryptography, and exploiting web applications.

Moon

Exclusively teaches programming in python with a focus on using it to exploit files and web services. The base consists of eight levels, each with five challenges. The first three levels focus exclusively on tutorials, with the following five levels containing challenges to test your python ability.

Forensics

Added in year 2.[5] The Forensics base focuses on steganography and retrieving information from provided files such as packet captures, disk images, and memory captures. The base consists of 8 levels with 5 challenges each.

Volcano

Added in year 3;[6] The Volcano base provides extremely hard pentesting challenges and is only unlocked after completing 100% of Headquarters. The base has 5 levels, each with 6 challenges. Unlike the other bases, challenges are unlocked in order, making it impossible to skip one. When Volcano access is unlocked, challenges are completed within a Virtual Machine hosted on the Cyber Start platform using VNC, which boot up on demand with everything necessary to complete the challenge. The same Virtual Machine is used for an entire level and have an uptime of 1 hour at a time. This system is useful for students working on the programme at school where Virtual Machines and the tools required are often not allowed to be run.

CyberStart Essentials

Accessible by any students that qualify for Game, Essentials is a non-competitive learning environment containing video and text tutorials, quizzes and exams. It is designed to complement Game, and is usually open for much of the same time.[7]

CyberStart Elite

The best performing students in each of the proceeding stages are invited to Elite events, which are face-to-face residential camps.[8]

Year 1

170 students attended 3 different events in Manchester, Bristol and London in Summer 2018. The events lasted for 2 days and included talks from industry professionals, challenges, and a Capture the Flag.[9]

Year 2

Events took place in Birmingham, Lancaster and London in Summer 2019.[10] The older group (16-18s) participated in courses ran by SANS Institute; either SEC504 or FOR500.[11][12]

Year 3

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Year 3 Elite is taking place online.[13] Students were offered the choice of FOR500, SEC504, or SEC503, delivered through SANS Live Online.

References

  1. ^ Business, Samantha Murphy Kelly, CNN. "Virtual cybersecurity school teaches kids to fix security flaws and hunt down hackers". CNN. Retrieved 2020-06-02. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ "UK seeks future cyber-security stars". 2017-11-18. Retrieved 2019-04-18.
  3. ^ "New UK Government cyber schools programme 'Cyber Discovery' launches to find next generation of cyber security talent | SANS Institute: Press". www.sans.org. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  4. ^ "Getting Started with CyberStart Game". gettingstarted.joincyberdiscovery.com. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  5. ^ CyberStart (2019-09-02). "Year 2. What's new?". Medium. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  6. ^ "Heads up: something new is coming to CyberStart Game!". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  7. ^ CyberStart (2019-09-02). "FAQ: What is CyberStart Essentials, is it competitive and how will I learn?". Medium. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  8. ^ "Discover your hidden talent for cyber security with over 200 free challenges". www.joincyberdiscovery.com. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  9. ^ "Final stage of Cyber Discovery finishes in London". Education Technology. 2018-08-22. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  10. ^ CyberStart (2019-09-02). "Where, when and what is CyberStart Elite?". Medium. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  11. ^ "CyberStart Elite Welcome Pack" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-06-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ CyberStart (2019-09-20). "A Newbie's Perspective on Cyber Discovery by Guest Blogger, Alex McCoy". Medium. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
  13. ^ "Congratulations". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-06-02.
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