2022 Summer STEM Online Program

INTRODUCTION TO CYBERSECURITY – CAPTURE THE FLAG SERIES

The MITRE Corporation of South Florida is hosting a Capture-the-Flag (CTF) cybersecurity summer training series, virtually welcoming students from Miami-Dade County public high schools. The series is designed to educate and develop students’ cybersecurity skill sets while also providing an application-driven introduction to Python for cybersecurity. Students will use a personal computer or laptop to access the cloud-based project environment to complete assignments and compete in teams.

Program Overview
Learn fundamental cyber knowledge and compete in cybersecurity challenges to gain real-life experience. Topics include scripting in Python, binary exploitation, web exploitation, forensics, reverse engineering and so much more!

Challenges are divided into 4 categories for our CTF instruction.

• Forensics challenges can include file format analysis, steganography, memory dump analysis, or network packet capture analysis.
• Web application challenges focus on finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in web applications.
• Reverse engineering involves exploring an executable binary. Participants need to find the key by decompilation, disassemble using static or dynamic analysis, or other reverse engineering tools.
• Binary exploitation is the process of subverting a compiled application such that it violates some trust boundary in a way that is advantageous to you, the attacker.

Participants

Miami-Dade Public High School students (grades 9-12) interested in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)

Prerequisites

Basic use of a computer and navigating the Internet

Mandatory Equipment

Computer or laptop with a reliable Internet connection

Class Structure

All classes will be held live online via Zoom. Classes will meet once a week on Saturday mornings for three hours (10am-1pm). A poll taken at registration will determine if Wednesday evenings (6-9pm) are preferred by the group.

Upon registration, attendance is mandatory due to the progression of the instruction.

Instructors and Learning Assistants are available to answer questions via email during the week. Online office hours may be available if there is a high demand.

Class Duration

Start July 9, 2022, through August 27, 2022 (eight sessions).  If the registration poll favors Wednesday evenings, the course will start on July 6, 2022.

Weekly Class Objectives

Class 1: Intro to course, what is a CTF and what is Kali Linux.
Class 2: Command line basics and forensics
Class 3: Command line advanced topics and forensics continued
Class 4: Street fighting Python and web application security
Class 5: Violent Python and web application security continued
Class 6: Toolkit and introduction to reverse engineering
Class 7: Finalized Toolkit and introduction to exploits
Class 8: Mini-CTF event

To reach us by email, contact: StemSouthFlorida@groups.mitre.org