Abstract

The field of cybersecurity is adversarial—the real challenge lies in outsmarting motivated and knowledgeable human attackers. Sadly, this aspect is missing from current cybersecurity classes, which are often taught through lectures and occasionally through" get your feet wet" practical exercises. We propose Class Capture-the-Flag exercises (CCTFs) to revitalize cybersecurity education. These are small-scoped competitions that pit teams of students against each other in realistic attackdefense scenarios. We describe how to design these exercises to be easy for teachers to conduct and grade, easy for students to prepare for and a lot of fun for everyone involved. We also provide descriptions of CCTFs we have developed and recount our experiences of using them in class.

Metadata

publication

2014 USENIX Summit on Gaming, Games, and Gamification in Security Education …, 2014

year

2014

publication date

2014

authors

Jelena Mirkovic, Peter AH Peterson

link

https://www.usenix.org/conference/3gse14/summit-program/presentation/mirkovic

resource_link

https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/3gse14/3gse14-mirkovic.pdf

journal

2014 USENIX Summit on Gaming, Games, and Gamification in Security Education (3GSE 14)

publisher

USENIX Association