What is the Headquarters Base?

Here’s what to expect as you tackle this base in CyberStart Game

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CyberStart Game has three bases — Headquarters base, Forensics base and Moon base. They all cover different topics and build up various skills you will need to be an effective cyber security practitioner. So, what will you learn in the Headquarters base? What challenges will you be up against?

The Headquarters base will see you tackle various cyber criminal gangs. You will have to gather information, crack codes, find security flaws and dissect a cyber criminals digital trail.

Your first challenge will see you join a team of agents investigating a gang of Dutch cycle thieves called the Slootmaekers. The cycle thieves have a number of legit bike shops throughout Amsterdam but it is believed there are a number of cyber criminals within the organisation. It is your job to help work out how they plan on stealing hundreds of bikes, when they plan to strike and how to stop it from happening!

If you successfully take down the Slootmaekers, you will unlock more levels, earn points, collect badges and secure promotions in the agency.

“The HQ stage has been really fun. I found the first few levels straightforward enough, but by level 8 things were ramping up. Now I’m halfway through level 13 and being really stretched, but coming back to a challenge after a while with a new approach has worked a couple of times.

My favourite challenges have been the ones that require scripting; it’s great fun to write a python program and watch it do something that would take hours for a human to crack!” — Samuel, CyberStart player

When you tackle each challenge, you’re looking for something called a ‘flag’. This is simply a code which you need to put into the box on the top left of the Toolbox on the challenge page and hit enter. If you get it right, you’ll see a ‘success’ message and you’ll be able to move on to the next challenge.

The Headquarters base consists of 13 levels each with 12 testing challenges that will develop your skills in a variety of security disciplines. That equates to a total of 156 challenges for you to get stuck into!

Good luck, agent!

Have you spotted a bug in a challenge on the Headquarters base? Why don’t you have a look at our blog post here on what to do to report it!