Cyber Discovery Community
Dialog body text

Site Settings

Welcome!

We are a passionate growing Discord community of students who are taking part in the UK's Cyber Discovery programme, part of HM Government's Cyber Schools initiative and the SANS CyberStart family of programmes. Find like-minded people, seek pointers and guidance on challenges, take part in Capture the flag events and more! If you're taking part in a related programme in the US, we welcome you as well! Make sure you join our server! While you're here, feel free to check out some of our cool open-source projects and consider lending us some of your amazing skills by contributing!

Discord Server

Join the largest Cyber Discovery Discord server with over 2300+ like-minded people and students who are going through the programme as well as a few SANS Institute staff members who are involved in running the programme!

Survival Guide

A website where we host tips, tricks, and guidance for those who are attempting the Cyber Discovery programme. All these articles have been written by past participants, most of whom have progressed to the Elite stage themselves.

Medium Blog

View the official Cyber Discovery Medium blog. This is where they post different announcements, challenges, student spotlights, answers, writeups, and much more. You can also download our app which has the Medium blog embedded inside!

Open Source

Discord Bot

This main bot for our Discord server. Get dates and briefings of various Cyber Discovery stages, fetch hillarious quotes and more. Join our Discord and hang out with us today!

Android & IOS App

Never miss a deadline again with the unofficial Cyber Discovery App for Android and iOS. You can build it from source, get from the Play Store or sideload a prebuilt release.

Maths Bot

A Discord Maths bot, which posts the current weekly challenge from the Kings College London Maths School. It is pinned in the maths channel for you to attempt.

Survival Manual

One of the sites we've built is a survival manual, where new students entering the programme can read blog posts and tips on how to prepare before a new stage opens.

Challenge Master

Challenge Master is a website that hosts cyber security-based challenges for the Unofficial Cyber Discovery Discord Server. You can create and solve challenges by our community.

App Website

Companion Website for the unofficial Cyber Discovery App. Essentially all the features of the App (Link in menu), but in a web-based form. No downloading required.

CD Rich Presence

A program to give Discord rich presence for Cyber Discovery. It gets the URL and examines the stage and challenge you are on, and feeds it to discord.

Alexa Skill

A skill for all alexa enabled devices, where you can ask questions regarding the opening and closing dates of the various stages as well as hints and tips.

Elite Camps 2019

/
Please select the relevant age group above, so we can provide relevant information!

When and where are the Elite camps?

Elite camps will be taking place in three locations this year:
  • Birmingham: 23nd - 25th [Finished]
  • Lancaster: 30th July - 1st August [Finished]
  • London: 6th - 8th August [Finished]
Elite camps are over for this year, they will happen again in summer 2020.

Do I need to travel back and forth each day?

Nope! We'll be provided with university accommodation for the two nights, with food and other necessities provided. You will need to pack your own clothes and any required items, such as medications for the 3 days, however.

How do I know if I'm invited?

All invites to CyberStart Elite 2019 have now been sent. If you didn't make it in this year, don't fret. Cyber Discovery will reopen for year 3 in September 2019, granting access to students aged 13-18 for the first time, so be sure to register your interest!

What will we be doing at the Elite camps?

Before the camp begins, you will be emailed a comprehensive welcome pack, detailing everything you'll be doing during the camp. As you are attending one of the younger camps, your experience will be focused more on penetration testing, with the final day dedicated to a simulated penetration test!

Do I need a parent?

You do need a parent, or other authorized guardian, to sign you in and out at the start and end of the camp; but they don't need to stick around for the entire 3 days.

Any other questions?

If the questions relate to personal circumstances, contact Cyber Discovery at [email protected], and they should be able to help! If it's more general, you can ask on our community Discord server!

When and where are the Elite camps?

Elite camps will be taking place in three locations this year:
  • Birmingham: 22nd - 27th [Finished]
  • Lancaster: 29th July - 3rd August [Finished]
  • London: 5th - 10th August [Finished]
Elite camps are over for this year, they will happen again in summer 2020.

Do I need to travel back and forth each day?

Nope! We'll be provided with university accommodation for the five nights, with food and other necessities provided. You will need to pack your own clothes and any required items, such as medications for the 6 days, however.

How do I know if I'm invited?

All invites to CyberStart Elite 2019 have now been sent. If you didn't make it in this year, don't fret. Cyber Discovery will reopen for year 3 in September 2019, granting access to students aged 13-18 for the first time, so be sure to register your interest!

What will we be doing at the Elite camps?

It somewhat depends on which camp you choose to go to. The main focus at each camp is around a SANS course; which varies from camp to camp. At the Birmingham and Lancaster camps, you'd be taking SEC504; whereas at the London camp, you'd be taking FOR500. It's likely that other secondary events will also take place during the camp alongside these courses!

Will I have a chance to get a certification?

Yep! Alongside the SANS training at the event, you'll also have a chance to take a GIAC certification for that course after the event, which shows you know your stuff!

Do I need a parent?

Unless you selected otherwise on the invite forms, you will need a parent, or other authorized guardian, to sign you in and out at the start and end of the camp; but they don't need to stick around for the entire 6 days.

Any other questions?

If the questions relate to personal circumstances, contact Cyber Discovery at [email protected], and they should be able to help! If it's more general, you can ask on our community Discord server!

Hey There!

by Our Community

Here are a group of resources you can use to enhance your cyber security knowledge and skill, regardless of your participation in Cyber Discovery. These resources have aided us immensely, enabling us to achieve the score and completion required to reach the Elite Camp. We hope that you find them as useful as we did!

OverTheWire

https://overthewire.org/

Wargames offered by the OverTheWire community, which can help you to learn and practice security concepts in the form of fun-filled games.

Replit

https://repl.it/

A free, powerful, and simple online compiler, IDE, interpreter, and REPL. Allows you to Code, compile, and run code in 30+ programming languages.

Hak5

https://www.youtube.com/

Thousands of videos on various infosec topics and news, hosted by the famous members of Hak5: Darren, Shannon and Mubix.

Seytonic

https://www.youtube.com

A variety of ethical-hacking related tutorials, diy projects, raspberry pi mods, arduino hacks and cyber security news.

LiveOverflow

https://www.youtube.com

Take a deep dive into topics such as reverse-engineering, XSS, pen-testing, malware analysis, exploring weird machines and much more.

SmashTheStack

http://smashthestack.org/

An ethical hacking environment that supports the simulation of real world software vulnerabilities and allows the use of exploitation techniques.

Hack The Box

https://www.hackthebox.eu/

A rapidly growing, popular online platform of 130k+ users with access to a large number of pen-testing labs and machines.

Techquickie

https://www.youtube.com/

Learn the fundamental concepts of computer science explained in a simplified format as quickly as possible in a few minutes.

Cybrary

https://www.cybrary.it/

Online cyber security training which you can learn anytime, anywhere with open-source, high quality training from top professionals and companies.

Udacity

https://eu.udacity.com/

A vast, comprehensive list of free online courses and Nanodegree programmes which range from mastering web design to business tech.

IppSec

https://www.youtube.com/

A collection of detailed HackTheBox video walkthroughs, showing the methodology of attempting the challenge from start to finish.

13Cubed

https://www.youtube.com/

Information security-related videos on Digital Forensics & Incident Response, Penetration Testing, overviews of various apps, scripts and more.

Codewars

https://www.codewars.com/

Where programmers achieve code mastery through solving different challenges in different programming languages, with an active community.

Codecademy

https://www.codecademy.com/

An online platform that offers free interactive programming lessons in various different programming languages. Great place for Python.

Learn RE

https://www.begin.re/

Learn the basics of x86 and get hands-on experience with reverse engineering from scratch. Extremely useful for binary reversing CTFs.

CSC UK

https://www.cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/

A series of national competitions & programmes, designed to enable more people to become cyber security professionals.

PicoCTF

https://picoctf.com/

PicoCTF is a high-school CTF where participants must reverse engineer, break, hack and decrypt different challenges.

FutureLearn

https://www.futurelearn.com/

Online courses from top universities and specialist organisations on cyber security and many other topics at no cost.

Null Byte

https://www.youtube.com/

A series of videos demonstrating how to utilise various tools, techniques and operating systems for aspiring ethical hackers.

TechLinked

https://www.youtube.com/

They say cyber security and tech news go hand in hand. Learn about the latest developments in technology in 10 minutes or so.

JackkTutorials

https://www.youtube.com/

Video tutorials explaining a range of topics, CTF walkthroughs and demonstrations of various tools in an easy-to-understand format.

Malwarebytes

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/

Read about the latest cyber security news around the world, with weekly summaries of the current threatscape, from Malwarebytes.

DVWA

https://github.com/

Damn Vulnerable Web Application is a web application that allows you to test common web vulnerabilities in a safe and legal environment.

TryHackMe

https://tryhackme.com/

TryHackMe is a freemium training platform for learning and teaching pre-built courses using virtual machines to practice various techniques.

OWASP Cheatsheets

https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/

OWASP Cheat Sheet Series provide a concise collection of high value information on specific web/application security topics.

Reply Challenges

https://challenges.reply.com/

A series of CTF challenges and competitions, where participants compete in teams, with frequent events and prizes.

Search HIBP

https://haveibeenpwned.com

Check if you have an account compromised in a data breach, using Microsoft MVP Troy Hunt's Have I Been Pwned service.

MAFH

https://www.youtube.com/

Get started with malware analysis and reverse engineering by watching a malware analyst unpack and explain real-world malware.
Snackbar Text.