Inside the cyber bootcamp helping stop the ‘rapid radicalisation’ of boys as young as 12
It looks like a normal classroom, except the students are surrounded by Australian Federal Police officers.
But there is no need for alarm.
The students have been selected because they already have super cyber skills. Nine
Everyone’s heads are buried in their desktops, with an endless stream of digits and numbers streaming across the screen.
They make more sense to the teenage students than they do the detectives and officers who are standing over their shoulder.
The kids are playing capture the flag, but it isn’t just a game. They are solving a series of puzzles and cracking codes that mimic real-world cyber incidents.
They aren’t there by accident, either, handpicked by our nation’s top cops to take part in a national roadshow bootcamp, called re_B00TCMP, which is helping combat the horrid torrent of vile content children are exposed to online.
“These skills are critical for children to understand how they can use their superpowers for good,” Acting Assistant Commissioner Matthew Gale told Nine.
“It’s an opportunity for them to come in and learn some of the guardrails around ethical hacking and the opportunities that are present for them to help strengthen Australia’s national resilience against online harms.”
The students have been selected because they already have super cyber skills.
“I really like going after the bad guys, people who are hacking into stuff,” Sarah, one of the handpicked students, said.
“I would love to work at the AFP and be a part of the cybercrime.”
The purpose of the tech bootcamp is to ethically teach participants safe boundaries of the online world, help find the holes in digital defences, and even out-hack the hackers.
The need to combat hackers was thrust into the spotlight after a rogue agent from artificial intelligence giant OpenAI went rogue in June and hacked into multiple Australian government agency websites.
The country’s cyber spy agency, the Australian Signals Directorate, also warned this week that Russian and Chinese state-sponsored actors were eyeing off Australia’s superannuation scheme as a target for their AI bots.
However, the mass development – and distribution – of AI also means children are more readily exposed to disturbing content, including extremist propaganda, deep fakes and child abuse material.
Acting Assistant Commissioner Matthew Gale says the skills are critical for kids to understand how to “use their superpowers for good”. Nine
Gale said boys as young as 12 were being radicalised from the confines of their bedrooms, a process which used to take years.
“Radicalisation can occur far quicker than that now, it can be as quick as weeks if not months,” Gale said.
Recent analysis from the AFP of 55 radicalised children aged between 12 and 17 showed all were male, and every single one them was radicalised all or in part online.
This week, Gale’s boss – AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett – warned federal parliament’s Senate estimates that their investigations into radicalisation were becoming harder as young radicals hold more than one ideology.
“Tech has enabled an instant pipeline of hate,” Barrett said.
“This pipeline of rapid rage, often unhinged and violent, is being home delivered.
“Lone actors are being motivated by a convergence of personal grievance, mental health vulnerabilities and ideological concerns.
“The contagion of online hate has breached the digital compound and is spilling into the physical world.”
More than 90 per cent of re_B00TCMP participants said they were interested in a career in cybersecurity.
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