A CTF-Based Approach in Information Security Education: An Extracurricular Activity in Teaching Students at Altai State University, Russia

Abstract

Capture the Flag (CTF) competitions are the most popular events in cybersecurity conferences where participants can demonstrate their skills. Also, the CTF is widely acknowledged as a valuable pedagogical tool for providing the students with real life problems in computer security area when dealing with CTF tasks. However, there is the possibility to go beyond treating CTF tasks only. The paper presents an approach to establish a CTF-based educational framework that allows students to gain more practical skills, knowledge and expertise in information security and related areas. The framework is implemented in Altai State University (Barnaul, Russia) in 2014 as an extracurricular club activity, and the club runs successfully up till now. Pedagogical benefits, learning methodology and educational aspects are discussed, and positive feedback shows the success of the proposed approach.