Category Archives: Networking and Operating Systems

Networking and Operating Systems Assignments and Information

Networking and Operating Systems

INTRO TO CYBER SECURITY – DAY 1: BEGINNING THE LINUX JOURNEY – FALL 2022

Objective: 

Students will begin preparing for proficiency in cyber security and information security techniques, technologies and methodologies by learning the basics of the Linux operating system.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Curriculum Overview
  • Cyber Security
  • Linux
  • Linux History
  • GNU
  • GPL
  • Linux Distributions
  • Linux Kernel
  • Package Management
  • Rolling Release
  • Branches
  • Advantages/Disadvantages of Linux

Assignment:

  1. The first step on our journey to Cybersecurity proficiency is to gain proficiency in the Linux operating system. A large portion of the systems that run the Internet run on a variant of Linux, and therefore learning how to effectively use the Linux command line will be a necessary step towards gaining this proficiency.
  2. We will begin by visiting the Linux Journey website, and we will walk through the online instruction modules together, learning about the history of Linux, and working our way through a few of the various distributions of Linux, noting the unique features of each and exploring the advantages and disadvantages presented by each flavor of Linux.
  3. Once you have completed the today’s activity, the rest of the time is yours. Use it wisely, and enjoy a peaceful denouement (Look it up!) to the 2nd week of school!
  4. Don’t forget there’s an I-Day on Monday! Keep an eye on your Microsoft Teams around 10am for Monday’s asynchronous activity, and complete it to make sure you get marked as “present” for the day!
  5. Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you all in-person on Tuesday, when we will begin working with the Command Line Interface in Linux, and investigate a few important commands.

Assigned: August 19th, 2022
Teacher Pacing Due Date: August 19th, 2022

Class Information, Networking and Operating Systems, Welcome

INTRO TO NETOP – CLASS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES 2022-23

Objective:

  • I can agree to abide by the class policies by reviewing the established policies and procedures to help ensure the classroom is a safe and fun place for everyone.

Links:

None.

Topics Discussed:

  • Classroom policies and procedures
  • Computer Acceptable Use Policy

Assignment:

  1. Welcome back! Today we’re going to go over the class rules, or as I like to call them, the policies and procedures.
  2. Society’s based on policies and procedures. Without ’em, we’re no better than poo-flinging monkeys in the jungle. Humans agree to abide by laws so we can all get along and get things accomplished with a minimum of screaming, head-bashing and poo-flinging.
  3. The policies and procedures are pretty straightforward, and they’re all posted in the front of the room where you can see them at all times. They’re all really based on one simple thing: respect.
    1. I’m going to show you respect at all times in the classroom, and all I ask is that you return the favor.
    2. I also ask that you treat everyone else with respect, so that they can do the same for you.
    3. The chairs have wheels for a reason: if you need to scoot over to collaborate with a partner, that’s great. Don’t use them to scoot all over the room, and don’t get up and wander aimlessly. Move with purpose.
    4. Have respect for other people who are trying to get work done, and don’t bother them. Don’t steal anybody’s work (or stuff, for that matter).
    5. Treat my stuff and the school’s stuff with respect, so that it can stay in good shape for you and for everyone else. Let me know right away if anything is marked, damaged or missing so I can address it immediately.
    6. We’re going to have a lot of opportunities to critique the work of others in this class. Keep it respectful, positive and constructive, please. Don’t feel bad if someone else critiques your work, it’s only going to help you improve and get stronger.
    7. I’ve got a lot of cool stuff to teach you in this class. Please don’t make it any harder for me than it already is by disrupting my class, or making it harder for the people around you to pay attention.
    8. I promise not to come to your room and mess it up; can you do me the same courtesy? I’d appreciate it.
    9. Don’t leave the room without my permission. I need to know where you are at all times. If you need to leave the room, please sign out on the digital sign-out sheet provided.
    10. Read your Student Handbook! We all (you and me both) are required to abide by its policies, so it’s important to know exactly what those policies are so you don’t violate them unintentionally (Or intentionally!).
  4. Do any of the class policies seem strange? Like something you shouldn’t have to be asked not to do? Guess what: the reason that policy’s in place is because some knucklehead decided to be a creep and had to be told to stop. Please: Don’t be that guy.
  5. If you can agree to abide by these policies and procedures, then we can all get along. If there’s anything you feel like you can’t agree to here, let me know and we can talk it over.

Posted: August 10th, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

Plans for Success 2022-23

Objective:

  • I can read and understand the class Plan for Success, and take it home to share with my parents/guardians and prove that my parents and I understand and agree to its contents by returning it with my and their signatures so that we can all understand our rights and responsibilities as learners.

Links:

Networking and Cybersecurity 1-2 H Plan For Success 2022-23

Topics Discussed:

  • Networking and Cybersecurity 1-2 H Plan for Success

Assignment:

  1. Hey, you’re back! It’s good to see you again. Today, we’re going to take care of some official business called the Plan for Success.
  2. When you get to the college or university level, every class you’re going to take has something called a syllabus. It’s basically a legal document that defines what you can expect from the professor, and what they expect from you. It’s a pretty important thing! The Plan for Success is essentially the same thing for this class.
  3. Why is it so important? Well, since it’s a legally binding document, if a professor violates the terms of the published syllabus in a way that a student feels negatively affects them, that student can take the professor to court. Side note: please don’t take me to court. If you see a problem with the Plan for Success, just let me know and I’ll fix it.
  4. I’m going to point out the important parts of the Plan for Success for you later, but it’s your responsibility to read it in full and make sure you understand it, because everything we do from here on out is going to be governed by this document. If you have any questions about the document, make sure you take time to ask me so I can explain anything you don’t understand.
  5. Once you’ve read it and fully understand it, sign it at the bottom to signify your understanding and agreement to follow the plan.
  6. Put it someplace safe, and take it home with you. Show it to your folks tonight, and tell them what we talked about today. Make sure they understand what you’re getting into, and have them sign it to confirm that they understand the details. Bring it back to me by the end of the week (August 12th, 2022).

Assigned: August 9th, 2022
Due Date: August 12th, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

First Day 2022 – Welcome to Networking and Cybersecurity!

Objective:

  • I can prepare for success in the class by familiarizing myself with the classroom and introducing myself to the instructor and the other students in the classroom so I can more efficiently and effectively complete class activities and assignments.

Links:
None.

Topics Discussed:

  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Room 225
  • Mister Marmolejo
  • Yourself!

Assignment:

Welcome to my classroom website for Networking and Cybersecurity! Frankly, I’m surprised you’re here – I’m not going to introduce this website to the rest of the class for another couple of days. I guess until then, it’ll be our little secret. This website will be your one-stop shop for all classroom assignments, announcements and materials pertaining to the class.

  1. Take a look around! I’ll explain everything here very soon.
  2. Tomorrow we’re going to do one of those “getting to know you” activities. I know, you’re probably going to do something like this in every class for the next few days. Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to make it fun.
  3. The fact that you even found this site shows you have a remarkably inquisitive and adventurous personality. Those qualities will serve you well here. When you meet me, mention the secret words “Lemon Sherbet“, and I’ll give you a prize. Don’t tell anyone else! It’s a secret to everybody.

Posted: August 8th, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

NETWORKING AND OPERATING SYSTEMS 1H FINAL CHALLENGE – Spring 2022

Objective:

Demonstrate proficiency in Cybersecurity Principles through completion of a final comprehensive assessment.

Resources:

Assignment:

  • The Final Challenge will be an open-form Flag Capture competition held within the Cloud CTF environment within the US Cyber Range website.
  • Log in to the US Cyber Range website and navigate to the Cloud CTF environment. The challenge will open at 1:00pm MST on Monday, May 9th and will continue until 3pm on Thursday, May 12th. Click the Start button to begin the challenge.
  • The Challenge will be open continuously until 3pm on Thursday, May 12th, and can be accessed from any web browser. You may take any opportunity inside and outside of class to complete challenges and earn points up to and until the 3pm close on Thursday.
  • This is an open-resource exam. You may use any resources that you have available to you (including each other!) to solve the challenges.
  • Each challenge has a point total associated with it. Easy challenges are worth lower points, and more difficult challenges are worth more points. Your goal is to achieve a minimum of 625 points before the Challenge closes at 3pm on Thursday, May 12th.
  • The challenges will cover many of the topics that we have covered throughout the class, including Cryptography, Networking, Online Reconnaissance, Linux scripting, and Website hacking.
  • Please bear in mind that 625 points is the minimum score, and as such, will result in a minimal passing grade. The final grades will be issued based on a curve according to the highest score in the class.
  • To sweeten the deal, the highest scoring student at the close of the Challenge will receive the Grand Prize: Lunch ordered in from their choice of restaurants on Friday, May 13th. (The last day for seniors!)
  • This is your opportunity to demonstrate the skills that you have acquired throughout the Networking and Cybersecurity sections of our class, and is a much more accurate demonstration of your skill than any multiple choice test could produce. Use your skills and your time wisely, and do not give up when the challenges become difficult: You have the tools and the talent to succeed. Good luck!

Assigned: May 9th, 2022
Teacher Pacing Due Date: May 12th, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League Final Game: The Team Game

Objective: 

Students will form a team and use their collective knowledge and training to compete in the NCL Team Game.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • National Cyber League
  • NCL Spring Season
  • Team Game

Assignment:

The Final Game: Team Game Play

Real-world cybersecurity work is often done in teams. The NCL Team Game provides a safe and challenging environment for players from the Individual Game to apply their knowledge and skills in a team setting.

The Team Game is where you compete with the other members of your team against all the other teams in NCL, even other teams from your school. Performance in the Team Game is used to calculate your school’s Cyber Power Ranking. You may receive assistance from members of your team but may not receive assistance from anyone else. No flag-sharing with other teams allowed. Each team may have up to 7 Student Players and do not need to be from the same school. Team Game roster sign up must be completed prior to the Team Game setup deadline.

The team game requires players to work together to solve real problems, with real deadlines, under time (and in some cases) technical and resource constraints.

All registered student players are eligible to play in the Team Game; Preseason participation is not required.

You will need to arrange and setup your own teams. As a coach, I have no involvement or ability to set up or configure teams. You can set up your team roster here. Setup must be completed by April 22nd at 9:59 AM Local Time or you will not be able to participate.

  1. Students who are creating a team can do so here: https://cyberskyline.com/events/ncl/register/team.
    After they create the team, they will be given a link to give to players (up to 7) they want on their team.
  2. Students who are joining a team will need to obtain the team joining link from the person who created the team. Once they visit the link and confirm, they will be part of the team. 
  3. Students may form teams of up to 7 players. While students may form their own team and play the game solo, this is highly discouraged, as it will limit your ability to earn points, and will likely result in a poor grade for this final assessment project. Please complete your team setup by April 25th at 8:59 p.m. local time.
  4. The Team Game is a mandatory weekend game. The Team Game starts at 10:00 a.m. local time on Friday, April 22nd and ends at 6:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, April 24th.
  5. As in the Individual Game, you are urged to continue to advance through the challenges over the weekend. Do not forget that you can log into the NCL Stadium from any device with an Internet connection, and you may use the tools in the Kali Linux workstation provided at https://uscyberrange.org to solve the challenges.
  6. It is recommended that you continue with the competition over the weekend and get as far as you can to achieve the best results, especially if you did not participate in the Individual Game. This will be your last opportunity to receive points for participation in the NCL Competition.

Please mark your calendars, and plan and prepare accordingly as this Team Game will represent the final Assessment grade before the Final Exam for this final term.

Assigned: April 11th, 2022
Teacher Pacing Due Date: April 22nd, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League: The Individual Game

Objective: 

Students will use their accumulated knowledge and training to compete in the NCL Individual Game.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • National Cyber League
  • NCL Spring Season
  • Individual Game

Assignment:

The Second Game: The Individual Game
The Individual Game is a mandatory weekend game. You must participate in the Individual Game in order to receive an NCL Scouting Report. The Individual Game gameplay starts at 10:00 a.m. local time on Friday, April 8th and ends at 6:00 p.m. local time on Sunday, April 10th.

  1. Please continue to advance through the challenges over the weekend. Do not forget that you can log into the NCL Stadium from any device with an Internet connection, but you may need tools available on a Windows or Linux workstation to solve some of the challenges.
  2. You have full access to the resources at the US Cyber Range to assist you with the challenges in the NCL competition.
  3. It is recommended that you continue with the competition over the weekend and get as far as you can to achieve the best result in your final Scouting Report. It is confirmed that 25% completion is the minimum where scholarships and other recognition may be awarded, but it is in your best interest to score as high as possible in the allotted time.

Please mark your calendars, and plan and prepare accordingly as the Individual Game will represent a significant portion of your grade for this final term.

Security + Team:

For those who are not competing in the NCL challenges, continue your independent study, working towards the Security + Exam. I will be making arrangements next week for our field trip at the end of the month to take the exam, so study hard. It’s closer than you think!

Assigned: April 7th, 2022
Teacher Pacing Due Date: April 10th, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League – Spring 2022 Practice Game

Objective: 

Students will use their accumulated knowledge and training to compete in the NCL Practice Game.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • National Cyber League
  • NCL Spring Season
  • Preseason

Assignment:

The First Game: Preseason Play
The Practice Game is a week-long pre-season game. You must participate in the Practice Game in order to receive an NCL Scouting Report. The Practice Game starts at 1:00 p.m. ET on Monday, March 28th and ends at 9:00 p.m. ET on Monday, April 4th.

There are lots of preparatory materials available. Also, be sure to read about the Bracketing system, which the Preseason game determines, as well as the Rules of Conduct.

  1. If you complete the Preseason game, continue your training in the Gym to prepare for the Regular Season competition on Friday, April 8th.
  2. If you do not finish the competition during class time, please continue to advance through the challenges over the weekend. Do not forget that you can log into the NCL Stadium from any device with an Internet connection, but you may need tools available on a Windows or Linux workstation to solve some of the challenges. It is recommended that you continue with the competition over the weekend and get as far as you can to achieve the best result in your final Scouting Report.

The Big Game: Regular Season Individual Game
The Individual Game is a three-day mandatory game. You must participate in the Individual Game in order to receive an NCL Scouting Report. The Individual Game starts at 10:00 am MST on Friday, April 8th and ends at 6:00 p.m. MST on Sunday, April 10th.

Please mark your calendars, and plan and prepare accordingly as the Preseason and Individual Game will form the bulk of your grade for this final term.

Security+ Team:

For those who are not competing in the NCL challenges, please continue working on your Independent Study in preparation for the Security+ test. Our goal is to complete the test at the end of April, so time is of the essence!

Assigned: March 28th, 2022
Teacher Pacing Due Date: April 4th, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League Resources: Hacksplaining

Objective: 

Students will begin preparing for competition in the National Cyber League by familiarizing themselves with known vulnerabilities faced by software developers.

Links:

Topics Discussed:

  • Cyber Security
  • NIST
  • National Vulnerability Database
  • CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) Database

Assignment:

  1. Visit the Hacksplaining website and create a login using your haydenmagnet.org email account.
  2. Hacksplaining offers hands-on interactive simulations of hacks that exploit known vulnerabilities in many widely used applications and programming languages.
  3. Each module contains three parts: Exercise, Prevention and Quiz. Complete the exercise to see how the hack is performed. Review the prevention information to learn more about the exploited vulnerability and effective methods of protection. Complete the quiz to confirm your understanding and complete the module.
  4. Take a screenshot of your passing quiz grade for each module to provide verification that you have completed the module. Save all these screenshots in a folder, as you will need to submit them in a Google Doc to receive credit for this project.
  5. There are twenty-five modules in total. You have this week and next week to complete all the modules.
  6. Submit a Google Doc containing screenshots of your passing grades for all 25 module quizzes to today’s Google Classroom assignment post by end of day on Friday, March 29th.

Assigned: March 14th, 2022
Teacher Pacing Due Date: March 28th, 2022

Networking and Operating Systems

National Cyber League Resources: Cryptography Links – Spring 2022

Objective: 

Students will continue preparing for competition in the National Cyber League by familiarizing themselves with common cryptographic methods so that they can effectively identify and decrypt encrypted messages and data.

Topics Discussed:

  • Cryptography
  • Ciphertext
  • Plaintext

Links:

This list is maintained as a resource for students competing in the National Cyber League competition to assist in identification and solution of the presented Cryptography puzzles. If you find any good online Cryptography resources in your travels, let me know and I will add them to the list!

Cryptii – A very cool and very fast “modular” decryption tool that lets you run a string of text through several encryption/decryption methods of your choice.

Dcode.fr – An outstanding French website that offers automatic decoding for a large variety of encryptions. Features include a powerful cipher identifier (that automatically recognizes more than 200 ciphers), decoding tools for the Caesar cipher, Vigenere cipher, Polybius’ square, and dozens of other encryptions.

The Black Chamber – A great collection of interactive tools that explain and allow you to decrypt a variety of common (and some uncommon) encoding schemes.

Tools for Noobs: Online Decryption Tool – Decrypts a string using various algorithms (e.g. Blowfish, DES, TripleDES, Enigma).

MD5hashing.net Encryption and Decryption – At md5hashing.net you can hash (encrypt) any string into 66 different hash types. As you probably know – decryption of any hash is impossible, but they offer reverse decryption via our database (~1000M records, and counting).

Splitbrain.org Encoding/Decoding Tools – This tool helps you to quickly run some text through various different encoding/decoding functions available in PHP. Great for a lot of different decoding possibilities rapidly

CodeBeautify.org Encryption/Decryption Tool – A nice, clean tool for decrypting codes that you know the key for, or encrypting codes with your own original key.

SQLite Viewer for Chrome – Chrome plugin for viewing SQLite databases in your browser. Allows opening and editing of SQLite databases without requiring admin access to install.

Posted: February 17th, 2022