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Welcome to Day 1

Today kicks off the Introduction to Cybersecurity STEM workshop. Over the next five days, you will build a company, defend it against cyberattacks, and learn the foundations of how security professionals protect organizations every day.
Camp dates: June 23-27, 2026 | Time: 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM ET each day
By the end of today you will:
  • Form your Cyber Defense Challenge team and assign roles
  • Understand the four categories and six types of security controls
  • Learn the CIA Triad - the foundation of all information security
  • Explore authentication factors and access control models

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The Cyber Defense Challenge

Your mission for the week:
Your team just started a new company. Every business faces cyber threats. Build your company, protect it, and respond when attacks happen.
This is a multi-day competition that runs alongside your lessons. Each day you learn new concepts and apply them to your company’s defenses. By Day 4, your defenses will be put to the test with live attack scenarios.
1

Day 1: Build your team and learn the basics

Form your team, assign roles, learn security controls, the CIA Triad, and authentication. These are the building blocks for everything that follows.
2

Day 2: Understand your enemies

Study threat actors, the cyber kill chain, and common attacks like phishing, SQL injection, and malware. Know your enemy before you build your defenses.
3

Day 3: Build your defenses

Purchase security controls for your Donuts & Dragons donut shop on a limited budget. Every dollar counts - choose wisely.
4

Day 4: Survive the attacks

Face live attack scenarios. Your defenses are tested, your team responds to incidents, and you see what held up and what didn’t.
5

Day 5: Final project

Unbox your USB Rubber Ducky hardware, write DuckyScript payloads, and see offensive security in action.

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Breaking into teams

Your instructor will divide the class into teams of 3-5 students. Each team will:
  • Choose a team name and create a company name for the wargame
  • Assign roles to each member (detailed below)
  • Work together all week to build, defend, and respond
Pick a team name that you are proud of - you will be announcing it to the whole class. Your company name is the fictional business you are defending in the Donuts & Dragons wargame.

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Team roles

Every team member plays a specific part. Some roles overlap, and that’s by design - cybersecurity is a team sport.
The Team Captain is the leader. You run team discussions, make final decisions when the group can’t agree, and brief the main room during presentations.Responsibilities:
  • Lead team discussions and keep everyone focused
  • Make the final call when the team is split on a decision
  • Present your team’s strategy to the class
  • Coordinate between team members during attack scenarios
Key questions you should always be asking:
Being the captain doesn’t mean you make every decision alone. The best captains listen to their team and make informed calls.
The Budget Specialist controls the money. In the Donuts & Dragons wargame, your team has a limited budget to purchase security controls. You decide what to buy, track spending, and calculate the cost of attacks.Responsibilities:
  • Track the team’s total budget and remaining funds
  • Purchase security controls from the pricing guide
  • Calculate financial losses when attacks hit
  • Recommend where to spend (and where to save)
Key questions you should always be asking:
Budget mistakes are permanent in the wargame. Once you spend money, you don’t get it back. Plan carefully before purchasing.
The Report Specialist is the team’s historian. You document every decision, every incident, and every lesson learned. When the team is asked “what happened?” - you have the answer.Responsibilities:
  • Record all team decisions and the reasoning behind them
  • Document incidents as they happen (what, when, how)
  • Create incident reports after attack scenarios
  • Track lessons learned for future rounds
Key questions you should always be asking:
Keep your notes organized from the start. During attack scenarios, things move fast. If you don’t write it down immediately, you will forget details.
Every team member is an incident responder. When an attack hits, the whole team works together to analyze, contain, recover, and improve.Responsibilities:
  • Analyze attacks to understand what happened and how
  • Contain incidents to stop them from spreading
  • Recover systems and restore normal operations
  • Improve defenses so the same attack can’t work twice
Key questions every responder should ask:
In real cybersecurity, incident response is everyone’s job - from the CEO to the newest intern. The same applies here.

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Red vs Blue

Throughout this camp, you will hear the terms Red Team, Blue Team, and Gray Team. Here’s what they mean:

Blue Team - Defenders

That’s you. The Blue Team defends the organization. You build defenses, monitor for threats, respond to incidents, and recover from attacks. Your goal is to protect your company’s assets.

Red Team - Attackers

The Red Team simulates real attackers. In our wargame, the instructors control the Red Team. They will launch attack scenarios against your defenses to test how well you prepared.

Gray Team - Referees

The Gray Team referees the exercise. Your instructors serve as the Gray Team - they set the rules, judge whether your defenses stopped an attack, and calculate the results.
In professional cybersecurity, there is also a Purple Team that combines Red and Blue team exercises for collaborative improvement. You will learn more about this concept as the week progresses.

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What to expect today

Here is your Day 1 schedule:

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Team business briefing

At the end of today, your team will create a business briefing for your new company. You will present:
  1. Your team name and company name
  2. What your company does (pick an industry - tech, food, healthcare, retail, etc.)
  3. Who holds each role on the team
  4. What you think your company’s biggest cyber risk will be
Think about real companies you interact with daily. What kind of data do they store? What would happen if that data was stolen or destroyed? Use that thinking when you build your fictional company.
This camp covers offensive security techniques for educational purposes only. All skills taught must be used ethically and legally. Unauthorized use of these techniques is illegal.