The Cyber Security Challenges for Australian High Schools will provide teachers and students with four classroom-ready activities (Challenges) that will develop cyber security skills and dispositions, and raise cyber security careers awareness through relatable role models, while teaching computational thinking and delivering the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies.
These Challenges will launch over the next 12 months, starting with a highly-engaging introduction to cyber security and personal information security in 2018.
This first Challenge takes the innovative approach of encouraging students to think from an attacker’s perspective, collecting the personal information shared in the social media of fictitious characters to compromise their simulated banking, email and online shopping accounts. The Challenge will also demonstrate the importance of password strength and protection, and secure protocols such as HTTPS, through practical activities.
The later three Challenges will use coding to develop key concepts and skills in the Digital Technologies curriculum along with technical cyber security skills and awareness, including:
The Australian Computing Academy (ACA) at the University of Sydney will develop the Challenges in close collaboration with the Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of the big four Australian banks: ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac, and their staff, who will provide authentic examples of security incidents and scenarios, and ensure that the Challenge teaching materials provide best-practice advice and skills, and realistic problems.