Operation FIREWALL — Teacher Guide

Before you start — what you’ll need

• A computer for each participating team — up to 7 total.
• One shared computer for all teams to use as the Maze Station.
• One teacher computer to run Mission Control and administer the game.
• All the printouts and clues — the seven team kits, the ID scan cards, and the Caesar keys.
• Anything you’d like to add or present — intro slides, a projected timer, prizes, and so on.
• A post-game reflection or assignment — ready-made questions are in section 7.

1 · How it works

Each team sits at a console (a web page) and works through five challenges — social engineering, weak passwords, log analysis, an evil-twin Wi-Fi trace, and an AI deepfake call — then assembles a final patch key. Every answer is found on that team’s printed dossier and room clues, not on the screen. You run the whole game from one Mission Control (admin) page, and a shared Maze Station computer handles the Wi-Fi trace.

2 · Set up the game (Mission Control)

From the Control Center, open Mission Control (the admin page). This is where you configure the game — don’t press Start yet; that comes once everyone is in the room (step 5).

1. School name — type it once in Setup. It flows automatically to every console and every printed dossier, so you never edit the team pages.
2. Stop time — set the end-of-mission clock that every team races. A typical run is 30–45 minutes; adjust it before you start.
3. End message — in Setup, type what a team should do the moment it finishes (win or lose). It appears on their end screen, so use it to point them at whatever comes next — the reflection questions, an assignment, or “come see me.” (See section 7.)
4. Maze scanner mode — choose how teams enter their agent ID at the Maze Station:
   • Scanner — teams scan the barcode on their ID card with a USB barcode scanner. Fast and hands-off; pick this if you have a scanner at the maze computer and want the room moving quickly.
   • Scanner + type — also lets teams type the 4-digit number by hand. Pick this if you don’t have a scanner, if scanners are flaky, or if you want students to prove they decoded the binary Field Credential themselves.

3 · Print & prep the room

1. Print each team’s kit (Control Center → Team Print Kits). Print in colour and keep Background graphics on so the colour stripes and posters come through.
2. Each kit is pre-sorted into two piles: the first pages (“Set up the room”) list what to post & scatter; everything after the “Everything here goes in the Dossier” divider is the packet you hand the team.
3. Every page carries that cell’s colour stripe and a “RED CELL”-style corner tag, so you can mix all seven cells’ clues around the room and teams can still find their own.
4. Print the ID Scan Cards sheet once (30 cards). Cut them apart and scatter them by the Maze Station — only 7 open a maze; 23 are decoys.
5. Hide each cell’s Caesar keys (small coloured key cut-outs) around the room — teams count their own colour to find their cipher shift.

4 · Set up the stations & test

1. One console per team. At each spot where you want a team (up to seven computers), open the Control Center and click that team’s button under Team Consoles — Blue Hat at the blue table, Red Hat at the red table, and so on. Leave each on its boot / keypad screen.
2. Maze Station on its own computer. On a separate shared computer near the scan cards, open the Maze Station. A team scans (or types) their 4-digit ID and the correct number opens their maze: they trace from the start to the halfway point (first half of the Wi-Fi password), then on to the finish (second half). A wrong move shows their path for 3 seconds and logs them out so the next team can take a turn — but once a team reaches halfway that progress is banked, so a slip only sends them back for the second half.
3. Sound on. Turn up the volume on every console and the maze computer — the briefing, the deepfake call, and the win / lose videos all use audio.
4. Quick check. Confirm each console reaches its keypad screen, the Maze Station accepts a test scan, and Mission Control lists every cell you’re using. Fix anything now, before students arrive.

5 · Brief the teams & start

1. Gather the teams and go over the rules and expectations: every answer is on their printed materials, not the screen; the console must stay in fullscreen — leaving it starts a 30-second counter and can fail the cell; copy / paste is disabled, so type carefully; take turns politely at the shared Maze Station; and the clock is running for everyone at once.
2. In Mission Control, press Start to open the mission and begin the countdown.
3. Each team then solves the keypad puzzle at its own console — the answer comes from that cell’s dossier access puzzle. Solving it unlocks the mission-briefing video, and from there the console opens and they’re loose to play. Short on time? Just give each team its keypad answer so they jump straight into the briefing.
4. Keep an eye on the live board — each cell shows progress, fragments recovered, and status.

6 · Answers, resets & troubleshooting

• All answers live on the Master Answer Key — keep it open on your computer or print it. It is not in any dossier.
• Reset a cell (or all cells) from Mission Control to start a fresh round; this also restores the maze’s original two-half behaviour.
• Stuck team? Every answer is on their printed materials; the answer key tells you exactly what to nudge toward.
• Audio not playing? Make sure the computer’s volume is up; the briefing and end videos need a click to start, which the game provides.

7 · When a team finishes — wrap-up & reflection

When a cell wins (or the clock beats them), its console plays the outcome video and shows the End message you set in step 2 — students should simply follow those directions. Point them straight into a reflection or assignment so finishers stay engaged while other cells play on — either set it up on your class LMS (Schoology, Canva, Google Classroom) or just have them do it on paper.

A quick ticket out the door — have each team answer these before they’re done. They push past “what did you do” into “what does it mean,” which is exactly the analysis AP Cybersecurity is after:

1. Of the five breaches you contained, which is the most dangerous to a real school, and why?
2. Your team cracked a password using someone’s public information. What habits made that possible, and how would you advise someone to prevent it?
3. The caller’s voice was faked by AI. If a voice can’t be trusted, how should people verify who they’re talking to — and why does a pre-agreed shared secret work?
4. This mission relied on five layers of defense. Explain how they worked together, and what an attacker gains when just one layer is weak.
5. AI powered today’s attack, but defenders use AI too. Argue whether AI makes organizations safer or more vulnerable overall, and defend your position.