{"id":500,"date":"2026-09-18T20:53:29","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T19:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/?p=500"},"modified":"2026-09-18T22:01:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T21:01:03","slug":"cyberfirst-advanced-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cyber-institute-news\/2026\/09\/18\/cyberfirst-advanced-course\/","title":{"rendered":"iCSS and School of Computing hosted the 2026 CyberFirst Advanced Course at University of Kent’s Canterbury campus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Kent, as a UK government recognised Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE)<\/a> with Gold Award status, participated in the nationwide delivery of the one-week-long CyberFirst Advanced Course 2026 <\/strong>which ran from 27 to 31 July. The course was led by QinetiQ <\/a>and nine other ACE-CSEs across the UK were also involved.<\/p>\n

The course targeted 16-17-year-old students. The University of Kent\u2019s participation was coordinated by the Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS)<\/a>, as part of its outreach activities under the brand name\u00a0KMCSN (Kent & Medway CyberSchools Network)<\/a>, together with the School of Computing<\/a> and the STEM outreach team. In total, 21 students enrolled from schools in the region were shortlisted from applications received and attended the course at the University of Kent\u2019s Canterbury campus.<\/p>\n

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The course delivered the NCSC\u2019s CyberFirst<\/a> Advanced Course curriculum covering four main topics in cyber security: Digital Forensics, Encryption, Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) and Penetration Testing. Each day focused in one topic and included a mix of theory and practical labs for hands-on experience.<\/p>\n

A range of local activities were organised during the 90-minute lunch break every day. This included a campus tour with a visit to the School of Computing\u2019s Hackspace<\/a>, drones and robots\u2019 demonstrations, a \u201cmeet our cyber students and alumni\u201d session where participants heard about experiences and tips from seven current and former students of the University of Kent. Finally, we had a \u201cmeet cyber professionals\u201d session with six members of the Kent & Medway Cyber Cluster (KMCC)<\/a> who shared their pathways into cyber security and career advice. KMCC co-sponsored the grand finale BBQ lunch with ice cream that was much appreciated by the course participants and organisers.<\/p>\n

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Course participants had numerous opportunities to socialise and get to know peers from other schools in the region with overlapping interests including some graduating students from the BSc Computer Science (Cyber Security)<\/a> course at the University of Kent. Fun activities, like \u201cthe cup stacking\u201d competition and board games, helped with friendship bonding.<\/p>\n

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The last day of the course was dedicated to a Catch The Flag (CTF) competition which applied the knowledge gained during the previous four days. Each of the eleven delivery sites (i.e., QinetiQ plus 10 HEIs) formed teams which competed against each other. Each member of the top two teams at the University of Kent was awarded a medal and other iCSS prizes. All participants received a certificate of participation.<\/p>\n

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Impressions about the course and the event \u2013 from the participants themselves \u2013 have been captured in the following YouTube video produced by the School of Computing.<\/p>\n