K-12
In 2015, the Air Force Association contracted with the CIAS to develop three digital games for its Elementary School Cyber Education Initiative (ISCEI): Security Showdown 2, Packet Protector and JeffOS.
Since those initial games were created, two additional prototype educational games were developed through National Science Foundation grants. The first interactive game, Project Cipher, introduces students, in fourth grade and up, to cybersecurity principles that focus on cryptography.
The second prototype game, Pyramid of Knowledge, is designed as a testing tool for teachers. It provides educators with the ability to build their own quizzes for use in the game interface. And rounding out these games is Cyber Threat Defender: Digital, targeting players 11 years old and up! All of these cybersecurity games can be found within the CIAS Launcher.
The CIAS Launcher
All of these cybersecurity games are free to download – bundled in a single file! When you open the “CIAS Launcher”, you are asked to extract the files somewhere (“Desktop” or “Downloads” or “Games” is fine!). Once this process is completed, locate the Launcher file on your computer and open it. Select the game icons of your choosing and click “Install” for each game you want to play!
Mac: No launcher yet, but individual games can be downloaded separately.
GNU/Linux: Launcher works with Wine.
About the CyBear Games
Below are brief descriptions of the electronic games featured within the CIAS Launcher. If you have questions about the games or have trouble accessing them, contact cias@utsa.edu.