CodeHS Cybersecurity Insider: New Cyber Course, Challenge, and more!

🍎 CodeHS Back to School Guide

Back to school is around the corner! Check out the CodeHS Back to School Guide to help you set up for a year of teaching with CodeHS. This guide includes Week Zero lesson plans and more steps to make sure you’re ready for your first day.

Explore the Back to School Guide

🆕 A New and Improved Cybersecurity Course!

We have updated and released a new and improved Fundamentals of Cybersecurity course. This exciting update offers a more engaging and relevant learning experience. We've incorporated a variety of interactive activities and labs throughout the course to solidify students’ understanding of cybersecurity concepts. Three main categories of improvements include:

Enhanced Engagement: Interactive activities and labs will keep students actively involved in the learning process.
Increased Relevancy: Fresh, up-to-date content ensures students are equipped with the latest cybersecurity knowledge.
Expanded Coverage: Additional standards coverage includes new material on Advanced Cryptography Concepts, the OSI Model, Risk Management, and Vulnerability Testing.

The new course is mostly comprised of completely new content. Some material has been brought down from the Advanced Cybersecurity course, and some material remains the same as the current course. You can see all of the changes at a glance by viewing this guide: Cyber Updates At a Glance

You can also watch the course release webinar. This webinar provides an overview of the latest version of the Fundamentals of Cybersecurity course, discusses what has changed from the prior version, and previews some of the new activities the course has to offer.

Webinar Recording

🗞️ Cybersecurity in the News

On July 19th, 2024, a global tech outage grounded planes, sent offices offline, and disrupted multiple industries. The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says it identified a critical problem in its software update that crashed systems across the nation! Learn more in the following article and video.

Read the following article to learn more about this fascinating incident and the ongoing fight to secure our tech.

Article: CrowdStrike shares details on cause of global tech outage

Video: What caused the CrowdStrike-Microsoft global tech outage?

Class Discussion Questions:

What do you think is the role of corporations in ensuring the security of their software and systems? Should there be stricter regulations or penalties for companies that cause widespread outages due to software failures?
The government would like to know what exactly happened with this widespread outage. Should companies have to share all their information? Why or why not?
Think about your own digital life. What would happen if you couldn't access your phone, computer, or the internet for a whole day? How would this impact your daily routines and activities? How does this connect to the larger issue of relying on technology?

🔥 Cybersecurity Challenge

Can you decode the encrypted message?

Last Insider’s Challenge Answer

This encryption uses a substitution cipher known as the Wingdings font. You can use this tool to decode the message. When decoded, it states:

“Someone cracked my password. Now I need to rename my puppy."

📗 Supplemental Curriculum

The CodeHS Project Catalog and Tutorials are great options to provide students additional practice and challenge students that complete classwork early.

Check out the How Strong is Your Password? tutorial where students learn how to create a password that can combat hacking attempts such as brute force attacks, dictionary attacks, and algorithm attacks.

🗓️ Upcoming PD Webinars and Workshops

Throughout the year, we host free webinars and workshops designed to help teachers learn more about the CodeHS platform and additional tools that can be used in the classroom.

If you’re interested in browsing our available content, check out our YouTube channel for past webinars and workshops.

Browse Available Webinars