Cyber Futures: Escape Room
An Exciting day on MTU campus this week!
We got the chance to conduct our cyber security escape room session this week on campus for four groups of first-year students from different secondary schools, for a total of eighty students that day. Each group was divided into several business departments (such as Finance, Legal, CEO, etc.) and given 30 minutes to accomplish activities aimed at cracking the code and getting the key to their group’s lockbox. We then presented the scenario “THE COMPANY HAS BEEN HACKED” to each group once they had cracked their codes. Each group’s objective was to fully immerse themselves in the department to which they had been allocated and come up with suggestions that would benefit the business. This chat allowed us to emphasise what a safe password is and what to do if you do get hacked.
“On behalf of our school, I would like to offer our sincere thanks to Clíodhna and the entire team at the MTU Nimbus Research Centre for the outstanding workshop. The sessions were exceptionally well pitched, engaging, hands-on, and perfectly suited to the curiosity and energy of the pupils. Our staff also benefited enormously. The clarity with which your team explained complex ideas, along with the practical examples and classroom-ready activities, has already influenced how we approach technology and problem-solving in our teaching. It was rare to find a workshop that could simultaneously inspire both students and educators, but Nimbus managed that with ease.”
Enjoyable Education
The energy in the room was electric throughout each session. Students who had never considered the real-world consequences of a cyberattack were suddenly decision-makers under pressure, debating password policies and incident response plans with genuine urgency. Watching first-year students step into the shoes of a CEO or a Legal team member and take it seriously was a reminder of just how powerful experiential learning can be when it comes to cybersecurity awareness.
To Conclude
It was a great day out of the classroom for the students. Despite only being in First Year of secondary school Cyber security relates more to them now than ever before, with more “scam texts” and “scam emails” than ever it’s so important anyone with a smart device is aware of what these scams can look like and how to deal with them when they arise.
