Bring real cybersecurity education into your classroom: free, flexible, and built for all skill levels.
Cybersecurity education, built for the classroom
CyLab Security Academy gives educators a free platform to introduce
students to cybersecurity through hands-on challenges, structured
learning paths, and classroom management tools — all created by security
experts at Carnegie Mellon University.
Whether you’re a CS teacher integrating security into an existing
course or running an after-school club, we have resources to support
you.
Get started
Set up your classroom
Three steps to get your students up and running on the platform.
01
Sign up
Sign up for a free educator account on CyLab Security Academy. You’ll
receive a confirmation email with a verification link. Verify your
account to activate it.
02
Create a classroom
Create classrooms from the Classroom page in the top navigation.
Distribute the randomly generated Classroom Invite Code so students
or co-teachers can request to join. Classrooms may have multiple
teachers and feature their own scoreboard.
03
Assign and track
Post Assignments to give students structured goals: each one
bundles specific challenges and learning paths with a due date. View
each student’s progress for every event they registered for, with
per-category metrics against the class average, full submission
history, and CSV export.
Manage your classroom
The Classroom page is your home base for seeing who’s joined, posting
assignments, and tracking every member’s progress against the class
average.
Academy platform · Classroom, educator view
Approve pending join requests, promote a co-teacher to a classroom
leader, and remove members who shouldn’t be there. If your students
don’t have accounts yet, Batch Register generates them for you.
Fill out demographic info and download a spreadsheet of logins to hand
out. Expanding any member shows their submission history, per-category
progress against the class average, and learning path completion;
export everything as CSV for your gradebook.
For your classroom
Learning guides
These guides cover the core cybersecurity topics found in our
challenges. Use them to prepare students before competitions, or as
standalone reading material for your course.
Curiosity, exploration, and deeply understanding how something works.
Most people who identify as hackers are working hard to protect people
and make technology safer. Computer security experts are in very high
demand today and are often paid six-figure salaries.
What is a CTF?
A computer security competition where contestants solve challenges
testing creativity, technical skills, and problem-solving. Each solved
challenge yields a flag string submitted to a scoring service. CTFs
are a great way to learn security skills in a safe, legal environment.
What is CyLab Security Academy?
A year-round cybersecurity learning platform created by trusted experts
at Carnegie Mellon University. It teaches enough security to pique
curiosity, motivates learners to explore on their own, and helps them
better defend the systems they rely on.
Educator FAQ
What network domains do my students need access to?
Network administrators may need to allowlist these domains and port
ranges:
cylabacademy.org (HTTPS)
learn.cylabacademy.org (HTTPS)
webshell.cylabacademy.org (HTTPS)
artifacts.picoctf.net (HTTPS)
What background do my students need?
Minimally, how to think critically. Some programming familiarity helps,
but many past participants have played with no prior programming
experience. Exposure to Python, HTML, JavaScript, and C is ideal — but
not required.
How does CyLab Security Academy fit into a curriculum?
Flexible enough to be a standalone enrichment activity, an after-school
club, or integrated into a CS or cybersecurity course. The Challenge
Library provides always-available practice; Learning Guides and
Learning Paths give structured paths for topic-by-topic learning.
Classrooms let you track and assess progress throughout.
Is it free?
Yes — completely free for students and educators. No licensing fees,
subscriptions, or paywalls.
How much time do students need?
A wide range of difficulties means students can spend as much or as
little time as you have. Outside of competition windows, Challenge
Library is always open for self-paced practice. Competitions run for
a fixed window (typically 10 days) but students can log in any time
during.
Can a CMU student ambassador visit my class?
Yes. CMU student ambassadors can help onboard students and review
basic security concepts. Email
support@cylabacademy.org for more
information.
How do I add additional teachers or leaders to my classroom?
Other leaders join with the same Classroom Invite Code used by
students. Once they join, they will appear in the Active Members
list with an action button to Promote them to a classroom leader.
What is the role of the teacher in competitions?
During competitions we hope teacher sponsors will act primarily as
facilitators rather than mentors — but feel free to support students
in whatever way suits your classroom.
As a teacher, can I play too?
Absolutely. We recommend you do not directly join a student team
during a competition, since this can render the team ineligible for
prizes (most student scoreboards require all team members to be
students). Use the classroom feature to follow your students’ progress
instead.
I'm still a bit confused…
No problem — email
educator@cylabacademy.org and we’ll
clarify. You’re also welcome in the Discord server’s
#teachers-and-educators channel to swap ideas and stories with
other educators.