Comic-BEE supports Cybersecurity Career Awareness Week (CCAW),
a week-long campaign from the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE)
to call attention to the contributions to society and innovations that cybersecurity practitioners make!
Explore cybersecurity careers with our web comics at no cost during CCAW.
Create your own activity by pairing a web comic with one of the other special events, online career discovery resources, or a virtual or in-person museum tours that are part of CCAW.
Here are some ideas on how you can use branching web comics as part of your CCAW activities:
Start your CCAW activity by reading a comic to explore different scenarios and see what happens with different choices.
Use one or more comics before or after a presentation or discussion about careers, or as a stand-alone, hands-on activity.
Make it a game or challenge! Comic-BEE will provide up to 25 free challenges on a first come, first served basis – request access using the form at the bottom of the page. Comic-BEE will automatically keep track of each player’s choices and time, and then automatically score each player. Each free challenge has a limit of 50 participants; if you are interested in a larger group, please contact us directly.
Cyber Crime Investigation
Join the cyber crime investigation team at the “National Bureau of Investigations” as they investigate the theft of millions of dollars from multiple banks. See how the “digital footprints” of cyber criminals become clues while you learn about different cybersecurity work roles. Can you catch all the hackers and other criminals involved in this cyber crime? Based on the real world Lurk malware investigation.
This comic relates to the NICE Framework Category “Investigate” and the Specialty Areas “Cyber Investigation” and “Digital Forensics”.
Target: Middle school, high school and college students, adults
Time: 7-12 minutes
Supplemental materials:
The Worm Turns
Follow Devon, the Help Desk support technician who discovers malware has slipped into his company’s network. Can you help Devin stop the worm from spreading to every computer and making a big mess? The focus is on managing anti-virus, patches and incident response in a corporate environment.
This comic relates to the NICE Framework Category of “Operate and Maintain” and the Specialty Area “Customer Service and Technical Support”.
Target: K12 students in cyber clubs or competitions, high school and college students, adults
Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Supplemental materials:
Nmap Apprentice
Using command-line Nmap, the open-source tool for vulnerability scanning and network discovery, race to determine if your new company’s network is secure before any bad guys find a way in! This comic addresses basic Nmap commands, scanning strategy, and understanding Nmap output.
This comic relates to the NICE Framework Category “Protect and Defend” and Specialty Areas such as “Cyber Defense Infrastructure Support” and “Vulnerability Assessment and Management”.
Target: Beginner and intermediate Nmap users in cyber clubs or competitions, adults
Time: 7 – 12 minutes
Supplemental materials:
Nmap official website – https://nmap.org/
Cyber Hygiene Comic
Follow Robin, a middle school student, as she tackles topics such as password strength, wireless router security, mobile security, and private v. public networks. Can she help keep her family secure online?
Target: Middle school students
Time: 5 – 8 minutes
Supplemental materials:
Cyber Ethics Comic
Seventh-grader Emma faces a series of ethical decisions about using digital technologies as she campaigns for Vice President of Student Council – will her campaign be a success or failure? You decide!
Target: Middle school students
Time: 5 – 8 minutes
Supplemental materials:
The Worm Turns Comic
Follow Devon, the Help Desk support technician who discovers malware has slipped into his organization’s Window’s based network as he tries to stop the worm from spreading! The focus is on managing anti-virus, patches and incident response in a corporate environment.
Target: High school and college students, advanced cyber club members*, entry-level IT and cyber security personnel
Time: 5 – 10 minutes
Supplemental materials:
*Advanced cyber club members = e.g., experienced Cyber Patriot or other K-12 competition team members.
Nmap Comic
Using command-line Nmap, the open-source tool for vulnerability scanning and network discovery, it’s a race to determine if the network in the comic is secure before the bad guys find a way in! This comic addresses basic commands, the strategy of how to scan and when to use specific options, and understanding the output of nmap.
Target: Beginner and intermediate Nmap users, high school students, college students, advanced cyber club members*
Time: 7 – 12 minutes
Supplemental materials:
- Nmap Tutorial – Common Commands
*Advanced cyber club members = e.g., experienced Cyber Patriot or other K-12 competition team members.
Cyber challenges and competitions
To request access to one comic for a one-day cyber game or challenge, please use the form below to specify the comic and date for your challenge.
- We will email you 50 anonymous access codes for you to distribute to participants.
- Challenge participants will see their individual score immediately after playing the comic.
- Complete scores and rankings will be emailed to you at the end of your challenge period.
- You can manually create a leaderboard by having players give you their scores as they finish.
- Limit one challenge per educator, please!