BRHS’s CyBR Hacks Holding Security Night

BRIDGEWATER, NJ - CyBR Hacks, at Bridgewater-Raritan High School, is embarking on a new initiative to educate young children about the importance of cybersecurity in today’s digital age.

The project, according to junior president Arnav Dedhia, focuses on teaching younger students, specifically children who attend Bridgewater-Raritan schools, various aspects of cybersecurity. Topics include steganography, network analysis, password protection and phone privacy.

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“We strongly believe that instilling cybersecurity awareness in children from a young age is crucial for fostering a safer and more secure online environment for future generations,” he said.

The event will be held June 4, and is called CyBR Night.

“It will be a giant milestone in cybersecurity education in the youth of our community,” said sophomore vice president Navneet Kalatheeswaran. “We hope to include around 75 to 125 kids throughout this event, from fifth to eighth grade, and will teach them cybersecurity in a fun, engaging way.”

During the event, Kalatheeswaran said, there will be many workshops with presentations on various topics.

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The overall plan is to first give a general overview on the field of cybersecurity, followed by the attendees moving between posters and presentations on cybersecurity topics, learning about the aspects in an informative and exciting way.

Afterward, Kalatheeswaran said, they will play a cybersecurity game with the kids, a “Capture-the-Flag” game with users having to utilize code and cybersecurity skills to crack challenges.

Lastly, they will introduce the students to CyBR Hacks.

“This is the first CyBR Night event, but we hope to continue it in the future,” he said.

Those who want to get involved can do so by emailing cybrhacks2000@gmail.com, or follow the Instagram account at @brhs.cyber.

Kalatheeswaran said they hope people gain a passion for cybersecurity by taking part in the event.

“In today’s modern and overwhelmingly digital world, cybersecurity is an emerging technology that is essential in protecting yourself,” he said. “Through this event, the goal is for the attendees to not only learn an ample amount of knowledge about cybersecurity, but to amplify their interest in the field in the future.”

Dedhia said they are passionate about working with kids through cybersecurity because it is a big and booming field.

“As we enter an age of technology, cybersecurity will be more prominent than ever,” he said. “Even if kids do not want to pursue this area of study, they should still know the basics.”

Dedhia said kids also need to understand how simple it is for a cyberattacker to get ahold of data.

The only thing that keeps hackers out of sites with your valuable information are passwords,” he said. “So, you would think that people would keep strong passwords, but that is not the case. The top 10 most common passwords are 123456, password, qwerty, asdfgh, 111111, 123123, abc123, password1, qwerty123 and iloveyou. This just goes to show how clueless people all around the world are to these very real cybersecurity threats.”

Aside from this program, Dedhia said, they used to participate in a cybersecurity game called Cyberstart America. This year, however, it was taken down, so they are shifting to a game from Carnegie Mellon University called PicoCTF.

“Both games are a very fun way to learn more about cybersecurity in a ‘Capture the Flag’ format,” he said. “By doing the tasks outlined in the briefing, participants get a flag they can submit to earn points in their account.”

In the Cyberstart game, the club had three people with the top 10 points in all of New Jersey, with one of them having completed the whole game and earning the maximum points allotted.

“We hope to have as much success with this new platform as we did with Cyberstart America,” Dedhia said.

Another goal, Dedhia said, is to host a CyBR Night as an annual event for kids in grade five through eight.

“By having a night for kids to learn about the ins and outs of cybersecurity, we hope to spark their interest in pursuing this field of study,” Dedhia said. “At BRHS, we already have two half-year courses about cybersecurity and this CyBR club. If kids are interested through the courses and the club, they will be able to explore more of the vast topic of cybersecurity.”

Also in the club are junior event leader Divyansha Nashine; sophomore event leader Luvya Manche; freshman event leader Romir Dedhia; freshman event leader Kush Dave; freshman event leader Shamar RSM; freshman event leader Pranav; freshman event leader Sumedha Singh; and freshman event leader Bryan Zou.

Visit cybrnight.wixsite.com/cybrnight for more information.

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