On 11 July 2025, AWSN delivered an engaging and hands-on cybersecurity event for high school students in Brisbane, designed to build awareness, skills, and curiosity about the digital world. The event was proudly hosted at Suncorp, Brisbane.
Twenty Grade 7 to 8 students participated in a day of interactive workshops, live demonstrations, and a fast-paced Kahoot challenge. They learned how to identify scams, protect personal information, and understand the growing importance of cybersecurity in everyday life. The event received highly positive feedback, with all parents rating the overall experience 4 or 5 out of 5 and reported their child was highly interested and excited about the activities.
The event featured three cybersecurity workshops that inspired students to explore how the digital world works, how to stay safe online, and what it means to think like a cyber defender. Across all sessions, students engaged in hands-on activities, real-world scenarios, and interactive challenges. Through live demos and examples, they discovered how cybercriminals attempt to access information and how simple tools, and encryption techniques can safeguard data. Students also had the unique opportunity to tour Suncorp’s Disaster Management Centre, gaining a behind-the-scenes view of how critical operations are managed during emergencies.
In the first workshop, students learned how to recognise phishing scams and protect their Personally Identifiable Information (PII). They explored common warning signs such as suspicious links, urgent messages, poor spelling, and generic greetings and practiced critical thinking before clicking or sharing.
The second session introduced students to the invisible world of networking and data transmission. Through fun activities, they explored how information travels across networks, how it can be intercepted, and how encryption protects sensitive data. Students decoded secret messages and gained a deeper understanding of the secure systems that underpin everyday online actions.
The final workshop was a Capture the Flag (CTF) style challenge that introduced data representation, encoding, decoding, and steganography. Students uncovered hidden messages in images using EXIF data and inspected log files like digital detectives. This session offered a first-hand experience of digital forensics, showing how cyber experts uncover evidence during investigations.
A big thank you to Suncorp, Brisbane, for collaborating with us to make this event a success. Special thanks also to the dedicated volunteers who gave their time to help empower the next generation of cyber-aware students. The future of cybersecurity is bright!