Cybersecurity Awareness Month (CSAM) 2021: Do You Have What It Takes to CyberEscape?

The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is partnering with Living Security during Cyber Security Awareness Month (CSAM) to bring CyberEscape to St. Edward's University from October 18 to October 29.

CyberEscape is a virtual escape room where players will go head-to-head in a timed challenge to put their security awareness knowledge to the test. In this experience, you're a special agent trying to catch a stealthy inside threat before the timer runs out. Solve puzzles, hunt down information in your Evidence Locker and answer security challenge questions to score passcodes. Check out the trailer below for more details.

The logistics: Your team can have up to eight people on a team in the virtual escape room. You will have 60 minutes to beat the clock and defeat the insider threat. Your team will be automatically guided through the escape room. All you have to do is complete the puzzles before the timer runs out. The first person who enters the escape room will be the leader of the group. However, participants are encouraged to switch leaders for each exercise.

You will not need to connect through Zoom or any other video conferencing platform. The entire experience will live in your browser. All you will need to do is sign up for a session, use the access link sent to your email, and play!

You may sign up as many times as you like but only your first attempt will count towards the challenge.

How To Sign Up for a CyberEscape Session

Do you have your team of eight or less players? Great. Now it’s time to sign up for the escape room. See instructions on how to sign up below:

1. Each player must sign up individually. Make sure everyone on the team has this link: https://bit.ly/CyberEscape21.
2. In the "Register for CyberEscape" section, click on the Sign Up button that best fits your role (student or employee).
3. You will be prompted to provide your email address. You will only be able to sign up using your St. Edward's email address.
4. Once you enter your St. Edward's email address, you will be sent a one-time access code to the email you provided. You will be sent a one-time access code each time you log in.
5. Enter the one-time code that was sent to your email on the session scheduling page. Once your identity is authorized, you will be able to sign up for a session. 
6. Find a date and time on the calendar. You may have to use the arrows next to the month and year to navigate to available time slots. Red dots will indicate where there are sessions available. Find a date and time, and then click "Book."
7. Once you register, you will receive a confirmation email with a direct link to the session. We recommend adding the session to your Google Calendar for easier access, which you can do from your confirmation email.

A note about the available sessions: If your group has mixed roles (both students and employees) OR if you don't see an available time and date for your team(s) to sign up, send an email to support@stedwards.edu with the email subject "Request: CyberEscape Session," and an OIT staff member will create a session for your team(s). OIT staff can also create private sessions for your team, meaning only people who have the session link will be able to join.

Best Practices

• Join early. Upon joining the escape room session, you will be prompted first to check your audio and video. It's a good idea to join ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time to ensure you don't have any technical issues. Once the session has started, participants will not be able to sign up.
• Speaking of making sure everything is working properly, let's make sure you're using the right stuff. Living Security recommends only using either Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browsers to join CyberEscape. If you're having trouble accessing the session (i.e., getting an error), you can try using other browsers. Please see the "Troubleshooting" section below if you are experiencing an error or glitch.
  • Also, make sure you are using the most updated version of your browser. Here's information on how to update your Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge browser.
  • You will have the best experience using a computer browser. We suggest avoiding using your phone browser.
• Communicate! This is a team-building exercise. You're in a race against the clock (not to mention an insider threat). The best way to get through the escape room before time runs out is to talk through the challenges.
• Take advantage of the accessibility features available in the virtual escape room by clicking on the button in the bottom right corner with the person icon, as shown below.

Prizes

We know what you really want to hear about: the prizes. The grand prizes for the top teams are a sense of accomplishment, a greater knowledge of cybersecurity and, of course, bragging rights.

No, not really. Check out the actual prizes below:

Students

The top four student teams will be entered in a raffle to win our grand prizes.

• Tier one raffle prize: one 2021 Apple 10.2-inch iPad (one winner)
• Tier two raffle prize: one pair of Beats Flex All-Day Wireless Earphones in Flame Blue per winner (three winners)

There will only be four grand prize winners. All students who participate will receive an OIT cybersecurity charm as a part of the Experience SEU charm program.

Employees (Staff/Faculty)

The top three employee teams will receive swag bags, which will include, but is not limited to:

• A "security blanket"
• OIT t-shirt
• "Not a password storage device" sticky note pad

Leaderboards

Keep an eye on the competition. Check out the Leaderboards throughout the challenge (October 18 to October 29) to see which team is in the lead — hopefully, it’s yours!

St. Edward’s Student Leaderboard

St. Edward’s Employee Leaderboard

Troubleshooting

If you are experiencing issues either getting access to the escape room or while you're in the escape room, try these troubleshooting steps to make sure you have an optimal experience with CyberEscape. 

Prerequisites: 

• Make sure you are connected to the internet and using the latest version of your browser. CyberEscape only supports Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers.
• You can check your internet speed at fast.com — it should be at least 5 Mbps.
• Your browser may also need to allow access to your microphone and video camera.

If you're getting an error while trying to access the page, try the following steps:

• Refresh the page.
• Close the browser window and reopen it.
• Try an incognito window.
• Try a different browser.

If you're experiencing some kind of glitch or error while you are in the escape room, try the following steps:

• Refresh the page. You will not have to re-enter your credentials.
• Close the browser window and reopen it. By taking this step, you will have to re-enter your credentials. You will receive a new one-time passcode in your email.
• In the escape room, there is a live chat button in the bottom right corner of the screen. You can use this button to chat with Living Security live support during the escape room session, who will help you troubleshoot the issue.

Living Security also offers support articles for participants in their Support Garden. If you’re having technical difficulties with CyberEscape, contact Living Security support.

Questions about scheduling sessions or other CyberEscape details? Contact OIT.