Written by Aneesa Z and Alicia Q, Year 8
Interconnected computers hold lots of our data in cyberspace. But do we have the skills to understand how to keep our data safe and how to tackle cyber criminals? To help with this challenge, every year the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) runs a competition called CyberFirst. Thousands of teams in England, Scotland and Wales enter to see if they can defeat the cunning challenges and be crowned the winning team.
When the competition was launched, we brought together a team, under the fabulous name of ‘It Ain’t Rocket Science.’ As we began the first day of the competition, we found ourselves in the computer science room with six or seven other OHS teams. This was going to be tough, as everyone looked confident and seemed to know what they were doing. With nervous excitement, we crouched over the computer. The race was on!
To be honest it was a slow start – but this wasn’t surprising as our strategy was to start with the harder puzzles first to make sure we wouldn’t run out of time. So with a bit of patience, lots of thinking… lots and lots of thinking, we started to crack the challenges. When one of us got stumped, luckily someone else worked out a solution. So little by little, over several days, we worked our way up the school leaderboard.
We were quite pleased with ourselves but then the NCSC threw in a surprise twist. With just 24 hours to go, they added a lot more challenges! This was a problem because we were already committed to other events. However, somehow, we kept going, even if we did feel like zombies by the end!
The final morning of the competition arrived – had we done enough? We had to wait an agonising week before the news arrived. We hadn’t just come first in our school, or first in the independent school category, we had been the top scoring team in the whole of the UK!
After this amazing news, we were told that we were invited to an award ceremony, joining with other top-scoring teams across the UK to be held in Oxford. We had hoped it would be some top-secret facility far away! The awards day finally came and we gathered together in the Thom Building – a part of the University of Oxford, Department of Engineering Science for a quick lunch and then walked to the Oxford Robotics Institute just next door.
We entered the lab which seemed to be full of wires, circuit boards and detached robot arms. There was a restricted area where a demo was being held of SPOT the dog, a very clever headless robot – so it was a bit creepy as well. We were then taken into one of the classrooms to have a lesson about the idea of living forever, and whether it is a good idea. We were each able to try out a VR headset, where we could do a variety of things, like examine a human skeleton up close, or explore a canyon scene. The next session was on encryption. We were given encrypted messages, which we decoded to spell out instructions to build a strong, tall and stable tower using lego bricks.
The evening celebration event was held at the University Exam Schools, and after a short speech from the CEO of NCSC, Felicity Oswald, the award ceremony started. One by one each of the teams were called up to be presented with their certificate and trophy, cameras flashing to capture glittering costumes and proud smiles. We waited in anticipation for our turn, and our faces lit up as our names were announced. We were not prepared for all the things we were given – an entire set of electronic goodies including new laptops and wireless earphones as well as the gorgeous crystal trophy and certificate. But that wasn’t all, and we were later called up to collect yet another trophy and a £1500 cheque for the school, having achieved the overall highest score of the entire competition! We departed with tired eyes, but with heads buzzing with excitement from the amazing day we just had.
Overall, this has been an extraordinary experience for all of us, from gaining new knowledge from the competition, to the cool things we learned at Oxford Robotics Institute, and socialising with girls from all over the UK. The speeches at the Awards ceremony were inspirational and have motivated us to take our cyber skills further, maybe one day to achieve great things in the cyber future.
