Finding the Next Generation of Cybersecurity Experts: CyberStart Game to Teach Young Adults and Students to Fight Cyber Criminals

With work-at-home trends likely to continue for some time, SANS Institute is making its online gamified learning platform, CyberStart Game, available to students, teachers and young adults in the region.

As part of the ongoing emphasis on online learning and the heightened levels of security threats during the pandemic, SANS Institute, the global leader in cyber security training and certifications, announced the availability of CyberStart Game for students and young adults across the Middle East and Africa. CyberStart Game provides a gamified learning experience that can be used in the classroom or accessed at home.

This 100% online learning platform is designed to teach complex security concepts promoting self-exploration and investigation over traditional learning methods. Students can play over 200 challenges are in control of their learning as they train at pace that suits them and their ability.

According to research findings in a report titled, ‘SANS EMEA Survey: the iGen and Cyber Security’, among 14-18-year-olds across seven countries in the Middle East and Europe, the choice of IT (including cyber security) as a career is highest in Saudi Arabia and the UAE (47% and 46% respectively). Of those students who are interested in a career in IT, 49% were specifically interested in cyber security across the EMEA sample of students, with Saudi Arabia and UAE leading the pack at 63% and 58% respectively.

"Global communities and their families including school and university going students are now in a shelter-at-home position. On the flip side, threat actors are increasing their activities, using advanced social engineering phishing techniques to lure online workers to malicious sites and possible ransomware attacks. At this stage, CyberStart Game is the most appropriate and suitable platform to build awareness of cyber security skills for young adults, who may encounter these threats as they move to the next level of their career or device usage. Specifically, we find high awareness levels amongst young adults in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and we look forward introducing the most proven cyber security tool for young adults - CyberStart Game, which will introduce, inspire and improve students’ cyber security knowledge," said Ned Baltagi, Managing Director, Middle East & Africa at SANS Institute.

CyberStart Game has been created by cyber security expert, James Lyne, who is the CTO at SANS Institute. It is the only training resource that focuses learning around real-world scenarios and cyberattacks, the challenges in CyberStart Game have been developed based on historical events and cyber breaches. CyberStart Game is built so that students can work independently. If they get stuck, there are various clues and tips and videos in-built to prompt them and help them through the challenge. Available now for schools, institutes and universities. The inbuilt simplicity and gamification experience of CyberStart Game means that teachers or parents do not need to be experts, they simply need to provide encouragement.

"We will be offering CyberStart Game Education and Enterprise packages. These packages include access for students and teachers and are flexible. We will help schools, universities and organisations in the Middle East and Africa to find the right option for them,” Baltagi concluded.