What’s new for Cyber Discovery this September?

Power up your computers, get your resources set and have Google ready: Cyber Discovery is back! Read on to find out about the new challenges, the whole new stage of Cyber Discovery and how we have lowered the age limit.

With a whole new year of the programme ahead of us, we wanted to tell you about the brilliant changes and unique challenges that will make Cyber Discovery even more exciting and challenging for you:

New Age Limit

We’re excited to be able to announce that, for the first time, Cyber Discovery is open to 13-year-olds! Now, if you’re aged between 13–18, you will have the chance to work through the challenges and prove that you have what it takes to move up the stages, all the way through to CyberStart Elite.

New CyberStart Assess Challenges

Cyber Discovery starts with CyberStart Assess, full of new problems that will test you to the limit. We have created all-new challenges for CyberStart Assess that will help you unlock your hidden cyber security skills. Across the different challenges, you’ll be working on such tasks as trying to hack into someone’s social media account and programming a robot. All to see if you have the ability to see between the lines, think a bit deeper and can use your puzzle-loving, problem-solving and code-cracking skills to find the answers.

New CyberStart Compete Stage

One of the biggest new changes to this year’s Cyber Discovery programme is the introduction of another stage; CyberStart Compete.

CyberStart Compete introduces an additional set of engaging content for you to tackle. Running alongside our programme stages, it gives you the chance to work through and develop your skills. Lucky participants will be able to battle against peers and test their skills throughout the year in multiple, individually-crafted ‘Capture the Flag’ (CTF) competitions that focuses on your different skills and capabilities. These competitions will span ability levels, including some incredibly tough, time-based challenges!

CTF cyber security competitions don’t involve first-person shooters or running around outdoors. Instead, cyber security CTF’s involve a set of computer security puzzles and challenges that test your skills in areas such as reverse-engineering, memory corruption and cryptography. When a challenge is solved, it gives you a flag — a secret string of code that can be exchanged for points. The more points, the higher the team moves up in rank.

This new stage, CyberStart Compete, gives you a new avenue to work on challenges that will test and focus you. We hope you can’t wait to start working on building your hidden talents so that they can serve you as a cyber security expert.

With all the new challenges, the new stage and the new age range, we are more excited than ever to announce that Cyber Discovery has officially opened! Start playing through the new challenges now.

Haven’t registered for Cyber Discovery yet? To learn more about Cyber Discovery and get involved, visit https://cyberdisc.io/medium