Defeat The Hack

Inspiration

Based on anecdotal evidence we found cyber criminals much less likely to be successful if the victims have had previous training and exposure to scams, trojans and other malicious activities that can be done to try and steal from them. Due to this, we decided it would be extremely beneficial to make an interactive skill tree-based game to train people on cyber attacks

What it does

Defeat The Hack trains people on what to do in scenarios where others may be maliciously contacting them or e.g. if they have downloaded an unfamiliar file. The goal is to train people starting with the most common cyber and phishing attacks and going on to more advanced topics as what to do if you have ran an unfamiliar file or ransomware has infiltrated your system

How we built it

We built it firstly by defining our requirements and then working as a team on modular individual parts and then combining them into the final product, We used Google Docs for this and then created a GitHub repository to allow easy collaboration and started coding. The tech stack that we used was Python, Pygame and SQLite to build the training game

Challenges we ran into

Some challenges we ran into were defining the structure of the game and how this will be implemented, We looked into Directed graphs, Directed graphs with nodes that have prerequisites to travel to, Trees, Linked lists and more. Overall we decided to use a Directed graph with prerequisites to allow for level creation and no skipping of crucial content within.

We split each section within the game into chapters which contain a list of levels for the user to complete that also acts as a checkpoint if they get a part wrong using a lives system for the player, removing one for each corresponding wrong answer selected. We then put these Chapters into our Directed graph with prerequisites that allow branching of the story and for multiple paths to be completed before one level can be attempted

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud that we have created a useable product that is adaptable and fit for the purpose we designed it for. Teaching people about how to defend themselves from cybercriminals.

What we learned

We learned the importance of properly planning a project out to avoid unexpected development time in sections allowing for speedy development.

What's next for Defeat The Hack

AI integration to create an infinite storyline for users to have a never-ending journey in protecting themselves against cybercriminals A more advanced GUI

Built With

• pygame
• python
• sqlite