Year 9 – Cybersecurity Lesson plan

Lesson 6 – Under Attack

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Lesson 6: Under Attack

Introduction
This is the final lesson in the unit, and the learners are encouraged to reflect on the
learning that has taken place throughout the unit before taking an end-of-unit
assessment. The learners will be prompted to reflect through a game called Under
Attack. Learners will work in groups to plan their defence strategy on a tight budget
before cyberattacks start to happen. The use of their budget will be key in determining
whether or not they are able to defend the organisation against the attack. Learners will
then take their end-of-unit assessment, and if there is time they will be directed to
research the available career choices in cyberdefence.

Learning objectives
● Identify the most effective methods to prevent cyberattacks

Key vocabulary
Blagging, ransomware, DDoS, brute force, virus, malware, hacking, spyware, adware,
firewall, two-factor authentication (2FA), backups, CAPTCHA, Internet Service Provider
(ISP), auto-updates

Preparation
Subject knowledge:
You will need to familiarise yourself with the rules of the game for Activity 1 and look at
the terminology that is used. You should be prepared to debate with confidence the
different methods of protecting against the attacks.

This is a topic that encourages learners to reflect on their own knowledge and
experiences as well as ethical viewpoints, so it is helpful to have a good understanding of
the key terms.

You will need:

● Slides (ncce.io/cybs-6-s)
● Activities:
○ Activity 1 Under Attack teacher instructions (ncce.io/cybs-6-a1-d)
○ Activity 1 Handout: Under Attack shopping list (ncce.io/cybs-6-a1-hu)
● Summative assessment questions (ncce.io/cybs-saq)
● Summative assessment answers (ncce.io/cybs-saa)

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Year 9 – Cybersecurity Lesson plan
Lesson 6 – Under Attack
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You will need to make sure that this website is accessible to your learners:
https://www.cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/resources/careers

Assessment opportunities
Activity 1 requires learners to apply their knowledge from this unit by identifying the
cybercrime and working out which method of protection would be most effective in
preventing the attacks. You can assess the learners’ understanding through their
answers as well as helping to steer the conversations to lead them to the appropriate
answers.

The main assessment in this lesson is the end-of-unit summative assessment.

Outline plan
Please note that the slide deck labels the activities in the top right-hand corner to help
you navigate the lesson.

*Timings are rough guides

Starter Cyberdefence: Recall the protection methods
activity
(Slides 3–4) Show slide 3 and ask the learners to work in pairs to recall as many
methods as they can of protecting them against cybercrime. Give them
10 mins three minutes to list as many as possible.

Select learners to give one answer each and write them on the board until
no one has any more to mention.

Move onto slide 4, where suggested answers have been given (your class
may have a longer list, but this is an example list that includes the key
methods they have learnt about in this unit).

Give the pairs an additional minute to discuss the following question:

‘Which of the following do you think prevents the greatest number of

attacks?’

This will focus their minds on what types of attack each method is designed
to prevent. Take some answers from the learners, but there doesn’t need to
be a discussion at this stage, as they will think about this again when
reflecting on what happened during Activity 1.

Activity 1 Under Attack

(Slides 5–15)
This activity is designed to remind the learners about the learning that they
25–30 mins have done during the lesson. They are given the task of being network

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Year 9 – Cybersecurity Lesson plan
Lesson 6 – Under Attack
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managers for an online retailer and they have to work in small groups to
think strategically to defend themselves against incoming attacks.

Full instructions on how to set up and play the game can be found here:

Activity 1 teacher instructions (ncce.io/cybs-6-a1-d)

Slides have been provided on the slide deck to help walk the learners
through the game.

At the end of the activity, show slide 15 and pose the following two
questions to the groups to prompt reflection:

● Were there any protection measures you should have prioritised

purchasing before others?
● Which method of protection protected you against the most
cyberthreats?

In the scenarios written for the game, two-factor authentication and anti-
malware were two protection methods that thwarted the most attacks.
Emphasise to the learners that although they were working for an online
retailer, these are two things that they can put in place on their own devices
and accounts. A lot of companies provide the option to set up two-factor
authentication for free (Google, eBay, FaceBook, and Paypal are just some
examples). There are also a lot of free anti-malware software providers.

Activity 2 Summative assessment

(Slide 16)
Distribute the summative assessment to the learners. This assessment
10–20 mins should be completed independently and under exam conditions.

Plenary Careers in cybersecurity

(Slide 17)
The following task is designed as an explorer activity for those learners
who finish the assessment before the end of the lesson.

Direct learners to the following website:

https://www.cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk/resources/careers
(ncce.io/cybercareers)

There are interviews with women who work in the cybersecurity industry, as
well as videos to watch about career pathways. Provide headphones to
avoid distracting learners who are still working on their assessment.

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Year 9 – Cybersecurity Lesson plan
Lesson 6 – Under Attack
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This resource is available online at ncce.io/cybs-6-p. Resources are updated regularly — please check that
you are using the latest version.
This resource is licensed under the Open Government Licence, version 3. For more information on this
licence, see ncce.io/ogl.

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