Defence Academy teams beat the CGI Escape Room

29 July 2024
cyber
Shipping container redesigned as an escape room.

The Defence Cyber Academy (DCA), part of the Defence College for Military Capability Integration (DCMCI), recently welcomed an innovative cyber escape room to the Defence Academy.

The cyber escape room provided by CGI is housed in a 40ft shipping container and aims to encourage teamwork while educating participants on basic cyber security knowledge.

Thirty-eight teams from across the Defence Academy took part with a team from the DCA completing in the fastest time of 36 minutes 10 seconds. As part of STEM outreach four teams from the 1st Watchfield and Shrivenham Scouts also had the opportunity to complete the cyber escape room.

Helen Wright, the Group Scout Leader for 1st Watchfield and Shrivenham Scout Group, said:

“The scouts and their leaders (myself included!) really enjoyed the cyber escape room challenge! We enjoyed working together on something new and different, and it was definitely educational.”

The escape room scenario features a simulated cyber-attack on a business, requiring teams to work under pressure to prevent the attack and ultimately the loss of data. Teams had up to 50 minutes to navigate through a series of puzzles and collect several clues to save the data from the attack.

Feedback from participants was extremely positive. Alba Goodman, from the Ctrl, Alt, Escape team said:

“Our team recently participated in a fantastic mobile escape room experience organised by Lydia Cleaver. Housed within a 40ft shipping container, the 50-minute challenge had us working together to solve puzzles and crack clues to escape. It was a blast!
Not only was it a fun and engaging team building activity, but it also turned into a friendly competition between colleagues, adding an extra layer of excitement. A big shout out to Lydia for her excellent organisation. It was a great way to break the ice and encourage collaboration.”

Col Lucy Giles CBE, Course Director, Land Command and Staff College said:

“The course development team for our Intermediate Command and Staff Course (Land) enjoyed a highly competitive morning unravelling puzzle after puzzle with the CGI Cyber Escape Room. It was a really positive team building activity that allowed us to focus on something different and was great fun. It also brought out the best in some of the quieter, more measured individuals and exposed a few with a tendency to just press everything and hope for the best. More please!”

The CGI Cyber Escape room provides security awareness training in a fun and memorable way for employees to learn the basics of cyber security and help control risks within organisations. They are currently touring the UK, with multiple future dates and locations.