Important updates for our Girls Go CyberStart competitors

We’re making some awesome changes to our program to make sure that you are supported, helped and able to develop your cybersecurity skills during this difficult time.

We have some awesome announcements to make!

Our mission in Girls Go CyberStart is to support young women to develop their creative-thinking, problem-solving skills and explore cybersecurity in a safe, barrier-free environment.

With the events taking place in the world right now, we don’t want it to affect your progress, or to reflect on what you could achieve. Which is why we are making some changes to our program, to ensure you can get everything you need, no matter where you are.

Ensuring you can qualify

With schools closing, we know that students may have trouble accessing resources, and teachers, to be able to continue learning. And that can make it a lot harder to make progress through Girls Go CyberStart!

We want to make sure that students who would have been able to qualify for the National Championship for Girls Go CyberStart 2020, without these disruptions, still get the chance to participate. We don’t want you to lose out and stop having fun, so we are easing up on the criteria to be able to qualify:

• In the team competition, at least 1 Club student has to complete at least 1 challenge in Level 6 of the HQ base in CyberStart Game to qualify their team.
• In the individual competition, students must complete at least 1 challenge in Level 6 of the HQ base in CyberStart Game to qualify.

Making sure you can play

With this change in criteria, we are also making changes to the current timeline for when the National Championship for Girls Go CyberStart 2020 will take place. So many girls have put in a huge amount of effort and commitment to reach this stage and we don’t want the recent events to limit anyone’s ability to qualify and participate. For this reason, we are extending the calendar for the National Championship for Girls Go CyberStart 2020:

• The National Championship will now be on May 20, 2020 — May 21, 2020.
• This means that the cut off for Game scores to qualify will now be May 4, 2020.
• Teachers will have between May 6–8, 2020 to make their team selections for the team competition.

Making sure you can continue learning

Our final change is that we are going to extend your access to CyberStart Game until June 30! We want to make sure that you have a brilliant resource open to you to keep your cyber-savvy minds alert. Making sure you have the resources you need to build your skills is important to us, and we don’t want you to have any barriers to your learning. We hope that some extra time playing CyberStart Game will support you and your education during these testing times!

Remember these resources and tips to help you carry on at home:

We know that a lot of students relied on the computers, community and closeness of being at school to work through Girls Go CyberStart. However, it is still possible to participate and compete this year, even from home! Below is a list of things you can do to keep playing Girls Go CyberStart:

1. We have partnered with NDG Labs to give you a Virtual Portal, so that you can still access the tools and resources you need to play and use the GGCS Virtual Machine in a safe, secure way. You can find out more through this link: ggcs.online/No-Limits
2. If you now find it too hard to work through Girls Go CyberStart in a team, you can switch to playing as an individual. Just click the ‘leave your Club’ button at the top of your dashboard. You won’t lose your progress, and can still make it through to the National Championship for Girls Go CyberStart 2020 as an individual!
3. Even though you’re not seeing each other face to face anymore, there are plenty of online video call programs and social media tools to make sure you can keep in touch. Whether you want to host a mega Skype session, connect to each other over a video call on WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, go live on IGTV or even chat over Discord, there are many ways to keep in contact and play together!
4. Finally, don’t panic if you can’t play Girls Go CyberStart right now. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to qualify and play in the future!

We hope these changes mean you are supported, able to develop your cybersecurity skills and most importantly have fun during this difficult time! If you have any questions around the new program changes, please get in touch by emailing support@girlsgocyberstart.org

Take care!