NOVA Cybersecurity Lab

In this game, you’ll defend a company that is the target of increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks. Your task is to strengthen your cyber defenses and thwart the attackers by completing a series of cybersecurity challenges. You’ll crack passwords, craft code, and defeat malicious hackers.

For Educators: The Cybersecurity Lab is a game designed to teach people how to keep their digital lives safe, spot cyber scams, learn the basics of coding, and defend against cyber attacks. The Lab also features stories of real-world cyber attacks, a glossary of cyber terms, and short animated videos that explain the need for cybersecurity, privacy versus security, cryptography (cyber codes), and what exactly hackers are. Below are objectives that students will achieve by playing the game and watching the videos:

Content Objectives: —Students will be able to explain computer science terminology related to coding, password protection, social engineering, and network security —Students will be able to describe how encryption works to protect privacy —Students will be able to describe recent network security breaches and how companies defend against them —Students will be able to explain why the term “hacker” is extremely flexible and the variety of roles that hackers play —Students will be able to analyze reports of unfolding security breaches and apply their understanding of security networks to them

Process Objectives: —Students will be able to navigate a robot through a maze using Blockly code in the Coding Challenge —Students will use analytical reading skills to distinguish among phishing attempts, fraudulent websites, and phone scammers in the Social Engineering Challenge —Students will use logical reasoning to create strong passwords in the Password-Cracking Challenge