With music blaring, popcorn popping and people flying off of mechanical surfboards, the second annual Festival of the Phishes brought a creative and engaging way to educate members of the community about cyber security.
Director of Information Security and Management Chris Witthans shared Chico State is the only college in the California State University system that has a Festival of the Phishes and they see it as an effective way to educate the community about an important topic.
The free event kicked off Cyber Security Month on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at the Trinity Commons lawn in Chico’s unforgiving sun — rather than the downpour that occurred last year.
Attendees picked up a passport card and traveled booth to booth, receiving stamps after successfully completing the games or training.
Each booth shared information about cyber security in relation to the activity. People running the booths — often wearing a fun costume — were very enthusiastic to share cyber security tips.
Dart the Dead Spot was a challenging game where players threw darts at a map of campus covered in targets. This game reminded people of the importance of using Eduroam and avoiding rogue networks that are created to steal your information.
Slam the Spam tested your throwing skills more than your knowledge of cyber security. But while knocking down cans of spam with a ball you could speak with the hosts of the booth about ways to distinguish between spam and scam emails.
Other games, such as Phish Feud or Pop a Duo, pitted attendees together to see who had the most knowledge about cyber security — or for Pop a Duo, the best shot with a basketball.
Ky Rodriguez and Matthew Yang, both first-years at Chico State, are bombarded with phishing scams in their inbox so being able to learn about phishing and smishing was very interesting to them. Other than learning more about phishing they really enjoyed the mechanical surfboard.
The 11 events are outlined below:
- Password Poetry — Taught attendees how to create strong passwords
- Dart the Dead Spot — Taught about rogue wireless networks on campus
- Cyber Security Showdown — Randomized cyber security trivia game
- Slam the Spam — A tossing game where the goal was to knock over cans of spam
- Scam or No Scam — A trivia game where you have to identify if an email is a scam or not
- Safely Surf the Web — A mechanical surfboard that tries to boot you off
- Pop a Duo — A basketball toss game with duo balls
- Museum of Mishaps — Artwork created by the community
- Phish Barbie — Photo opportunity with Phish Barbie
- Go Phish — A game where you catch magnetic fish with a fishing pole
- Phish Feud — A trivia game against fellow attendees
Chico State’s Information Security Club also had a booth at the event. They hosted an exercise of deciphering coded messages with the caesar cipher –- a spinning wheel that would match two letters together. The club also created simulated events for the event that taught attendees how attackers steal personal information if someone scans a malicious QR code and puts their private information in.
Max Dieterle and Ninan Rodriguez, both students in the Information Security Club, shared their knowledge on how people could stay safe online. They emphasized the importance of not approving Duo notifications that you didn’t create and to not scan random QR codes or click random links.
Giovanni Ramirez and Caitlyn Stone, both criminal justice students at Chico State, wandered upon the event after leaving class but took the time to go to each booth, receiving the necessary stamps to complete the passport.
Once attendees filled their passport card with stamps, they could choose from different prizes. Ramirez received a water bottle and Stone took a shirt to remember the event.
Phishing on campus is prevalent and can be disastrous for students but falling for phishing scams is preventable with the right education. The Festival of the Phishes was created to help educate members of the community in a fun and relatable way.
Chris Hutton can be reached at [email protected].
