The event was officially launched by the Hon Andrew Hastie MP.
Grok Academy, a not-for-profit charity advancing computing education, today announced the launch of Cyber Live, a virtual industry event where more than ten thousand school students from around Australia participated in a dramatic simulated cyber-attack on Australian targets. The event was officially launched by the Hon Andrew Hastie MP, Assistant Minister for Defence, together with a wide range of industry partners, including ANZ, CBA, NAB, Westpac and BT, as well as new sponsors The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), Amazon Web Services (AWS), and FifthDomain.
Cyber Live is the culmination of the Schools Cyber Security Challenges (now called Cyber STEPs which is a $US3.8 million national project. Today’s launch challenge involved thwarting a simulated yet realistic cyber-attack on a navy vessel and the kidnapping of military personnel as part of a broader ‘Mass Infrastructure Attack’ (MIA). Students representing more than 200 schools from each state and territory in Australia had the chance to grapple with a host of simulated threats ranging from social engineering, to hiding data in images, cracking computer codes, tricking applications, stealing data, and listening to communications.
Kicking off the launch, The Hon Andrew Hastie MP, Assistant Minister for Defence spoke about the significance of Cyber STEPS: “This is an exciting partnership between Grok Academy, government, industry and education, and it’s the largest project of its kind in Australia. I’ve often spoken of cyber security as the new battlefield. We often talk about war being fought on sea, in the air, or on land. But space is a new domain, and cyber is a new domain. And if you own a phone, a computer, or a tablet – you’re on this new battlefield. It is a chilling fact that you don’t need to bomb a city to bring it to its knees. We never want to see a cyber–Pearl Harbor in Australia. I know that Grok Academy’s courses have taught thousands of students and teachers around Australia these important steps in uplifting our cyber defences. Cyber security is a team effort, and we all have a shared responsibility to lift our nation’s cyber defences. I thank Grok Academy for bringing all this together.”
Impact To Date
The project launched in February 2019 and Phase One reached over 170,000 students, 46 per cent of whom were female. The project’s efficacy has been established through a recent survey conducted by Grok Academy which found that 77 per cent of students believe that the Cyber STEPS challenges gave them an understanding of personal cyber security risks. The project also sparked considerable interest in cyber security as a profession, with 22 per cent stating that they would consider a career specifically in this field. From an educator perspective, the survey found that over 80 per cent of teachers believe that the Cyber STEPS challenges gave their students insight into the role cyber security plays in industry, while over 90 per cent found the resources helpful in delivering the Digital Technologies curriculum.
Future Focus
In 2022 Phase Two of the Cyber STEPs initiative will further enhance the cyber security capabilities of young Australians entering the workforce, through appealing and true-to-life activities for primary, secondary, and now tertiary students. The project aims to create a cyber-enabled student body and encourage participants to pursue a lucrative career in cyber security, which commands salaries 20 per cent higher than in other technology fields.
This year Cyber STEPs will bridge the gap between basic and advanced cyber security skills, as seen in the Cyber Live MIA challenge. The focus of the launch day challenge aligned with the Australian Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Threat Report 2020-21, which found that 25 per cent of cyber incidents reported to the ACSC were associated with Australia’s critical infrastructure or essential services, including health care, food distribution and energy sectors. This and other findings have highlighted the vulnerability of infrastructure to significant disruption of essential services, as well as lost revenue and the potential of harm or loss of life.
The Cyber STEPs Team and Expertise
With extensive experience in school and tertiary education, the Cyber STEPs team brings curriculum and teaching expertise to the project. To address the complex needs of these sectors, the new Cyber Challenges will be aligned with curriculum outcomes at both the school and tertiary levels. A review of the current and future threat landscape identified a need to incorporate a stronger emphasis on a range of technical cyber security skills related to analysing scams and phishing attacks, digital forensics and cyber investigations, Unix tools and system administration, and network configuration and hardening. Australian students will develop more sophisticated cyber security skills and dispositions in the newly designed version 9 of the Australian Curriculum, and the Cyber STEPs activities directly cover this new content.
Addressing the Cyber Skills Gap
The Cyber STEPs project also addresses the critical need for schools, government, and Australia’s business sectors to meet the immediate skills shortage. In March 2022, AWS released the Australian findings of a new research report developed in collaboration with consulting and economics firm, AlphaBeta, titled “Unlocking APAC’s Digital Potential: Changing Digital Skill Needs and Policy Approaches”. The report estimates the number of workers in Australia requiring digital skills will need to increase by 3.7 million more workers over the next year alone – representing 29 per cent of Australia’s total workforce. The research also found that cyber security will be the second most in demand skillset by 2025. Similarly, a Cybersecurity Workforce Study by (ISC)2 in 2021 found that the number of cybersecurity professionals currently needed in Australia is 25,000. Cyber STEPs therefore plays a critical role in engaging Australian student interest in pursuing studies and careers in cyber security and closing the skills gap.
Partner Quotes
Speaking at the launch, Dr. James Curran, CEO of Grok Academy, and one of the authors of the ‘Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies’, stated: “Cyber STEPs will grow the skills pipeline through high-impact national cyber competitions, cyber hunts, and authentic technical Challenges. Cyber STEPs will enable a wider audience to step from cyber novice to professional by developing their technical skills and confidence.”
“Building on the considerable success of Phase One of the project, Cyber STEPs will provide Australian schools and tertiary students with an awareness of career opportunities in cyber security, and the chance to develop fundamental skills that prepare them for success in technical cyber security roles across multiple industries. It will also provide support, resources, and engaging classroom activities to educators with limited technical knowledge, so they feel confident in the quality of the learning experiences for their students,” Curran added.
Security leaders from ANZ, ASD, AWS, BT, CBA, FifthDomain, NAB and Westpac participating in the launch, explained how Cyber STEPs plays a critical role in improving students’ cyber safety whilst also addressing the continuing cyber security skills shortage and the growing threats to critical infrastructure and essential services.
