Student-Led Teaching of Security Issues Using Capture the Flag Learning Platforms

During the past academic year, third year BSc Computer Security students have been involved in the creation of Capture the Flag (CTF) learning platforms to raise awareness of cyber security issues, such as the OWASP 2017 top ten vulnerabilities. Flags are hidden within the CTF learning platforms for a participant to discover, each flag providing points. The CTF learning platforms were taught as student-led additional workshops for the first year, foundation year and applicant day cyber students. This provided the participants a chance to learn the OWASP vulnerabilities and other security issues in an interactive environment. The participants were asked to provide feedback on the CTF learning platforms at the end of the workshop, and results showed high levels of engagement, learning and enjoyment of trying to find the flags. These CTF learning platforms have highlighted how our students and technology can be involved with the teaching of cyber security. One of these students is currently working out a method for safely running CTF learning platforms remotely for our future students, given the challenges presented by the global pandemic.