Cybersecurity learning pathway in Minecraft Education

  • 4 minutes

Cybersecurity is a set of processes, best practices, and technology solutions that help protect your critical systems and network from digital attacks. As more and more people are working and connecting from anywhere in the world, the risks of cyberattacks have also increased. Cyberattacks have become more prevalent as methods for gaining access to resources and stealing data, sabotaging businesses, or extorting money have also become more sophisticated. Every year the number of attacks increases, and adversaries develop new methods of evading detection.

To combat cyberattacks and become more proactive in finding solutions, individuals and organizations need to have an effective approach to cybersecurity. An effective cybersecurity program includes people, processes, and technology solutions that together reduce the risk of business disruption, financial loss, and reputational damage from an attack.

There's no better time than now to start working on developing cyber skills in young people and adolescents. Minecraft Education created a full cybersecurity pathway to support grades 2-12, from lower primary to upper secondary.

Screenshot of the collections in Minecraft Education cybersecurity pathway that are described in this unit.

This is the Cybersecurity pathway in Minecraft Education. There are four collections of Minecraft worlds within the pathway. Although there are recommended age ranges and grade levels, there are many practical and applicable places for this learning content. You should consider your academic standards and how you might best integrate them into your existing curriculum and/or courses.

Cyber Safe

There are four maps in the Cyber Safe collection.

Screenshot of the maps in the Minecraft Education Cyber Safe collection.

  • Map 1: Cyber Safe: Home Sweet Hmm – This map is focused on having students better understand how they can stay safe on the internet and other digital spaced by remembering to STOP and THINK, before they CLICK.
  • Map 2: Cyber Safe: Privacy Prodigy – This map is focused on having students learn about what is personal information (data), who should have access to their data, and how to protect their data.
  • Map 3: Cyber Safe: Good Game – This map is focused on having students learn about building healthy online gaming habits to create a better online community.
  • Map 4: Cyber Safe: CloudCraft – This map is designed to help students learn about the cloud and explore the important role datacenters play across the globe.

Cyber Fundamentals

There are three maps in the Cyber Fundamentals collection.

Screenshot of the maps in the Minecraft Education Cyber Fundamentals collection.

  • Map 1: Network Heroes – This map contains three lessons to teach students about network components, password protection, and malware.
  • Map 2: The Interceptors - This map contains two lessons to teach students about authentication and incident response teams.
  • Map 3: Cloud Champions – This map contains two lessons to teach students about digital footprints, storage methods, and the Internet of Things.

Cyber Expert

There are three maps in the Cyber Expert collection.

Screenshot of the maps in the Minecraft Education Cyber Expert collection.

  • Map 1: Cryptic Ciphers – This map contains three lessons to teach students about encryption and decryption, integrity, and social engineering.
  • Map 2: Daring Defense - This map contains three lessons to teach students about firewalls, DoS/DDoS attacks, and access control systems.
  • Map 3: Malware Mayhem – This map contains three lessons to teach students about malware, ransomware, ethics, and back-up storage.

Cyber Defender

In Cyber Defender there's one map.

Screenshot of the maps in the Minecraft Education Cyber Defender collection.

The map is intended to teach defense in depth strategies in an immersive and interactive way.