News Godolphin Success in Cyber Security Competition 19.01.2023

Congratulations to Year 10 Computing students Emily, Catherine, Raphaela and Minh-Vy who recently stormed up the leader board in the annual Cyber Centurion Competition, finishing in sixth place in the ‘Senior All Girls Category’. Taking the initiative themselves to prepare and enter the competition, the girls participated in three gruelling six-hour online sessions over three weekends, attempting to discover all the security vulnerabilities within various operating systems. Topics included identifying policy violations in the form of various types of malware and implementing defensive countermeasures such as firewalls and encryption.  As the organisers commented ‘students who take part benefit from a unique chance to develop their technical expertise as well as soft skills such as communication, teamwork and leadership – essential to succeeding in any role in cyber security today’.

Not a week goes by without reports of another organisation falling victim to a cyber attack and so we continue to give our students the opportunity to gain vital experience in this critical area and develop the required technical skills. It is an area that students are increasingly interested in and so a Computing option has been introduced in Year 9. The Cyber Security module is based on the Cyberstart platform which aims to develop the required technical skills through real-world hacking challenges and puzzles. Year 9 students are introduced to concepts including steganography and URL manipulation and then have a chance to put their forensic skills into action by completing some of the Cyberstart challenges.

This is excellent preparation for students who might be interested in studying computer science at university and/or entering this ever-expanding and critical field of work.