High school students visit BUT to experience the cyber arena

Experts in cybersecurity from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Communication Technologies at BUT decided to attract prospective students to study information security and demonstrate the modern form of education at the university. That is why three groups of high school students visited Brno in June to experience what it is like to find themselves in the role of an ethical hacker in a special Cyber Arena.

The main attraction for the high school students, in addition to touring the laboratories, was a game designed to familiarise them with cybersecurity. One of the creators of the game, operating via a web interface, is Zdeněk Martinásek from the Institute of Telecommunications: "For example, we have a scenario where a student’s girlfriend is kidnapped while he is on vacation, and he tries to rescue her. It is based on a real penetration test, and thanks to the game elements, solving a relatively difficult security task is entertaining for the student." During the game, students experience attempting to bypass security measures and access important information. When it comes to breaching security to identify vulnerabilities, it's called ethical hacking.

High school students played a game called Capture the Flag. They searched for flags intentionally hidden in programs or websites to test their ability to find errors and weaknesses in security. One of the goals was to demonstrate that having a weak password makes it easy to break. "I haven’t encountered such a teaching format before. The game was similar to online competitions, such as the Technology Olympiad that my friends and I participated in. This provided a nice insight into practical application," says Martin Smítka, a winner of one of the rounds, currently in the fifth year of an eight-year programme at theMatyáš Lerch Gymnasium in Brno. Similarly, Tomáš Melichárek, a winner from Gymnázium třída Kapitána Jaroše in Brno, states: "I've been interested in this topic since childhood and I've participated in competitions such as programming or math Olympiad, so it was relatively easy for me, but it was fun."

The third group consisted of students from the Secondary Technical School in Třebíč, which a student of the BUT Master's programme in Information Security, Willi Lazarov, also attended. He is also the creator and lecturer of the Cyber Arena BUTCA (Brno University of Technology Cyber Arena). "When I was in high school, nothing like this was taught and not many people were interested. Today, information security is already included in education," recalls the student who prepared the play's script for the high schoolers: "Students from Třebíč underwent basic training in the Cyber Arena earlier this year. We prepared a more advanced scenario focused on penetration testing of smart meters to show them that testing real devices in practice is possible."

Ladislav Havlát, Deputy Director of the Třebíč Technical School, appreciates the successful collaboration: "We are very pleased to cooperate with the university because it gives us a different way of teaching, and above all, it addresses the shortage of qualified teachers, which is a big problem today." The Secondary Technical School in Třebíč is the first school to incorporate the Cyber Arena platform into regular teaching in the 2023/2024 school year. "We purchased the Cyber Arena from Brno University of Technology for teaching information security because we see it as a huge opportunity, not only for our high school students. In my opinion, it is necessary to start teaching these topics from primary schools and continue to universities to ensure a sufficient number of professionals for practice," Havlát concludes.

The BUTCA Cyber Arena can be customised according to the customer's requirements and is ready to assist in teaching cybersecurity at both high schools and universities. Do you want to learn more, try it out, or purchase a license for your school? Visitwww.butca.vut.cz and contact us!

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