The Badge Archive

Fulfills Step 1 of GSUSA Cadette Cybersecurity Investigator badge requirements.

Info Needed for badge requirements: Text messages can reveal a lot about someone, like their daily routine, interests, or relationships. Strangers might use this information to guess passwords, track habits, or even steal identities. To protect your privacy, avoid sharing sensitive details like passwords or personal info in texts and think carefully about what you send. Always assume someone else might see your messages!

Information specific for this Text Message Mystery: A password is a secret code used to protect your accounts. Hackers can try to guess passwords to get into accounts. Sharing your password or using the same password for everything is unsafe because it makes it easier for others to access all your information. To keep passwords safe, they should be long (more than 9 characters), include a mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, and be different for every account. Never share your password with anyone.

Items Needed

• VTK Emma’s Text Messages by GSUSA (one set for each group of 4-6 scouts)

Instructions

1. Divide scouts into groups of 4-6. Give each group a set of Text Message Screenshots.
2. Leader states “Emma, a scout, thinks she may have been hacked. When she logged into her video-streaming app, her settings were changed, and there were shows in her “Recently Watched” list that she has never seen. We need to investigate Emma’s text messages to figure out who might have hacked her and how it happened.”
3. Scouts analyze the text messages and look for clues to figure out who might have hacked Emma’s account and how it happened.
4. Groups compare notes to identify the key problem and how it led to Emma’s account being accessed without her knowing.
5. Once groups finish, bring everyone together to share their findings. Emphasize the importance of keeping passwords private and following the password safety tips explained in the “Info Needed” section.

Answer For leaders: Emma shared her laptop password (“monkey”) with her friend Audrey. Emma also used the same password for all her accounts. Audrey was able to log into Emma’s account and watch shows.