This is a guest post written by Gwendolyn who took part in the CyberStart America programme.
“CyberStart has made a huge impact on me and quite literally changed my life around. It jump-started my knowledge and passion for cyber, and was the reason I ended up competing in the US Cyber Open”.
Gwendolyn shares how she found her passion for cyber security and became a member of the US Cyber Team by playing CyberStart.
CyberStart is incredible. With zero knowledge of cyber security, I first discovered CyberStart in the summer of 2020 for a SANS CyberStart Game competition open to all high school JROTC and Civil Air Patrol cadets.
It was extremely new and challenging for me, but a whirlwind of fun– I got absolutely addicted to CyberStart, fell hopelessly in love with cyber, and ended up being the top-scoring female (second overall) and also received the Top Agent award.
“I got absolutely addicted to CyberStart, fell hopelessly in love with cyber, and ended up being the top-scoring female (second overall) and also received the Top Agent award.”
From there, I kept on learning and improving and competed in numerous other cyber games (NCS, CyberPatriot, picoCTF, and lots more) and started my own CTF team of high school and college students from several different countries, which plays team CTFs together whenever we have free time.
How CyberStart changed my life
“I’m now attending Dakota State University which is one of the best universities in the US for cyber operations. I am also a member of the 2023 US Cyber Team. None of this would have been remotely possible without CyberStart.”
CyberStart has made a huge impact on me and quite literally changed my life around. It jump-started my knowledge and passion for cyber and was the reason I ended up competing in the US Cyber Open in June 2021 and placing 50th overall.
Because of my scores, I was invited to the US Cyber Combine (an invite-only, 3-month-long combination of training and competition where the coaches of the US Cyber Team choose who will make the team travel to Athens, Greece, for an international cyber security competition as a trainee (not eligible for the US Cyber Team because I didn’t meet the minimum age requirement of 18).
During the Combine, I grew exponentially in cyber and was awarded the Rising Star award at the end. I was also one of the 14 inductees to the coach-invitation-only US Cyber Games Accelerated Training Program.
I’m now attending Dakota State University which is one of the best universities in the US for cyber operations. I am also a member of the 2023 US Cyber Team, which they have now lowered the age minimum for, too.
None of this would have been remotely possible without CyberStart.
If I hadn’t come across it back in the summer of 2020, I’d probably be planning on going to a liberal arts college somewhere and majoring in literature (I love books!… but not compared to cyber!), and never have discovered my talent and passion for cyber security.
Why you should join CyberStart too
“It has been the best introduction to the cyber realm that I could have possibly asked for.”
I cannot possibly recommend CyberStart enough. If you have a hidden talent or passion for cyber lying dormant inside you, CyberStart will bring it to the top in full bloom.
Yes, it will take blood, sweat and tears to figure out easy level 1 challenges because you are just now learning the basics of what the slashes in URLs actually mean and how they work. Yes, it will take many hours of googling and reading articles to learn about the basic concepts put forth in summary in CyberStart challenges to learn what you need to know for the next level of HQ which will be even harder and teach you even more. But once you know… you know! And that’s what makes CyberStart so valuable.
It has been the best introduction to the cyber realm that I could have possibly asked for: telling me enough to pique my interest and give me ideas, but also forcing me to do my own research and learn on my own what cyber is all about.
So, even if you have no clue what cyber is supposed to mean and you have limited knowledge of computers and the web: give CyberStart a try anyway. You never know what you’ll unlock.
Want to find your hidden passion for cyber security and achieve beyond what you thought possible like Gwendolyn?
Give 12 challenges in CyberStart a go by signing up for your free account or see if you’re eligible for one of our free programmes to access hundreds of challenges and resources that could jump-start your future in cyber!
