The word hacker can mean a lot of things: Coder, tinkerer, designers, or even criminal. Above all more, a hacker is an expert and a originator. If the word has its own negative baggage, it may also be a highly desirable trait.
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Cybersecurity expert Bruce Potter is a large proponent of learning about hacking--particularly the sort that deals with information security--through gaming. In a 2013 talk called "It's merely a game, inches Potter outlined how both world class professionals and complete newbies use video games for education and betterment when it comes to hacking.
We're here to address the newbies.
Understanding about hacking through video games is a tale as old as time. That doesn't want to level up in game and in life concurrently? Of course, it's not so easy: Finding the right games to teach you the right concepts can be challenging, and it's easy for newbies to be taken in by games that bear little resemblance to reality.
Which where Project KidHack comes in. Designed to teach kids the basics of hacking, KidHack puts with each other a curriculum of typical and new games to dive into and learn.
"[My kids] may or may well not choose information security as a field they go into, " a security expert known simply as Grecs, who began the project after being inspired by Potter, said in a talk last year. "However, the whole philosophy is to introduce them to basic security concepts at a young age so whatever field they go into, they're more security oriented, more security aware. inch
The project was influenced by Ender's Game, the popular science fiction novel by which kids were taught about war through games. This is a little less brutal, much more cheesy, and plenty of fun, but the ideas make good sense all the same.
Here are the best games Project KidHack recommends:
Video games
Uplink is a hacking ruse in which players perform dirty jobs for international corporation: money laundering, stealing data, sabotaging enemy systems, erasing evidence, and other nefarious activities. The cheese factor is high, but the game is a vintage, and it's a fun way to immerse yourself in the basic principles of information security. Plus, who won't want to steal $1 million from a few money grubbing banks?
Pwn: Combat Hacking is a fast spaced real-time strategy game from 2013. Players aim to take over nodes from rivals in what amounts to a mix between chess and "3d tic tac toe, " as Grecs calls it. Resources like viruses, encryption, backdoors, trojans, and firewalls essence the game up and add the necessary hacker flavour to make this a good summary of the world.
CryptoClub, created by teachers at the University of Illinois, is perhaps the most direct and useful teaching tool because it dives into real cryptography problems. While it lacks the cyberpunk techno that other games apparently deem a requirement, CryptoClub is an excellent collection of puzzles and video games that will challenge a brand new learner.
Steve Jackson Video games
Card and board video games
It's somewhat counterintuitive, but some of the first and best games about hacking take place beyond any computer.
d0x3d is definitely an an open-source board game aimed specifically at laymen trying to learn about security and hacking. Players sign up for a team and take the role of top notch hackers infiltrating networks to steal valuable assets. Whilst, network administrators are "patching compromised machines, raising sensors, sometimes changing [the network's] very topology to impede your motion, " according to TheGameCrafter. com.
Next up is Control-Alt-Hack, a 2012 card game that puts you in Hacker, Inc. Because ethical hackers--better known as "white hat hackers, " the kind that protect your systems rather than exploit them--Control-Alt-Hack teaches complicated ideas, such as interpersonal engineering and network executive to non-technical players.
Cyber-terrorist & Agents is definitely an Uno-style card game with a huge helping of hacker ideas, allowing players to learn about tools, like rootkits and SQL injections. It can a simple game to learn, but each card comes with little bonuses (think binary and accurate hacking code), so players dive a little deeper in the more they play.
Hacker is a classic 1990s card game depending on a real-life You. S. Secret Service rezzou of Steven Jackson Online games relating to Jackson's Illuminati online bulletin board from the 1980s that ran an array of early hacking games. Within the game and its numerous expansion sets, hackers create networks and then be competitive against one another with viruses, worms, military hardware, and other tools in order to control systems and take over the 'Net.
The raid that inspired Hacker also led to the creation of the Digital Frontier Foundation, so it's a historical treasure if nothing else. Hacker beyond print but is one of these classics of the genre where, if you get a chance, warrants a play.
All these online games are meant to be early steps that spark an interest not only in hacking but in critical thinking. If you want to take further steps, Grecs says, the time are out there. As an example:
