Tools like viruses, encryption, backdoors, trojans, and firewalls spice the game up and add the necessary hacker flavor to make this a good introduction to the world.ĬryptoClub, created by academics at the University of Illinois, is perhaps the most direct and useful teaching tool because it dives into real cryptography problems. Players aim to take over nodes from competitors in what amounts to a mix between chess and “3d tic tac toe,” as Grecs calls it. Pwn: Combat Hacking is a fast paced real-time strategy game from 2013. Plus, who doesn’t want to steal $1 million from a few greedy banks? The cheese factor is high, but the game is a classic, and it’s a fun way to immerse yourself in the basics of information security. Uplinkis a hacking simulation in which players perform dirty jobs for international corporation: money laundering, stealing data, sabotaging enemy systems, erasing evidence, and other nefarious activities. Here are the best games Project KidHack recommends: Video games This is a little less brutal, a lot more cheesy, and plenty of fun, but the ideas make good sense all the same. The project was inspired by Ender’s Game, the famous science fiction novel in which kids were taught about war through games. “However, the whole philosophy is to introduce them to basic security concepts at a young age so whatever field they go into, they’re more security minded, more security aware.” “ may or may not choose information security as a field they go into,” a security expert known simply as Grecs, who started the project after being inspired by Potter, said in a talk last year. Designed to teach kids the basics of hacking, KidHack puts together a curriculum of classic and new games to dive into and learn. Who doesn’t want to level up in game and in life at the same time? Of course, it’s not so easy: Finding the right games to teach you the correct concepts can be tricky, and it’s easy for newbies to be taken in by games that bear little resemblance to reality. Learning about hacking through games is a tale as old as time. In a 2013 talk called “It’s only a game,” Potter outlined how both world class professionals and complete newbies use games for education and betterment when it comes to hacking. If the word has some negative baggage, it can also be a highly desirable trait.Ĭybersecurity expert Bruce Potter is a big proponent of learning about hacking-particularly the sort that deals with information security-through gaming.

Above all else, a hacker is an expert and a creator. The word hacker can mean a lot of things: Programmer, tinkerer, designers, or even criminal.

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