That's the idea of a new table-top card game centered around hacking and Internet security will be presented this week in Las Vegas at Black Hat 2012, an annual information security conference, reported Phys.org. The game is called “Control-Alt-Hack” and targets 15- to 30-year-olds with at least some knowledge of computer science.
While the game doesn’t explicitly teach how specific security exploits work, it involves concepts from the world of information-security and it could be used to supplement a high-school or college computer science course, said game creator Yoshi Kohno, a University of Washington associate professor of computer science and engineering.
"Hopefully players will come away thinking differently about computer security," Kohno said.
The game received funding from Intel, the National Science Foundation, and the Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education.
The card game is not yet available for purchase, but will soon be available from the official website.
The public and private sectors are both in need of thousands of more young workers with cybersecurity expertise. Last year, Government Technology reported on a contest called the U.S. Cyber Challenge, a quiz and practicum intended to identify the best and brightest young minds in the field of computer security.
The Control-Alt-Hack game looks to be another effort to cultivate the young work force.
Photo: Unidentified players of Magic The Gathering, a fantasy card game, during the tournament Grand Prix Turin on April 1, 2012 Turin, Italy. ROBERTO ZILLI / Shutterstock.com
