Hacker Cybersecurity Logic Game

Instruction Manual

AGES 10 to Adult

Single or Collaborative unplugged Game Play

Introduction

Train to become a member of the elite white hat hacker team Oblivion. At their hidden training facility, you will be tasked with finishing forty (3-part) simulations. Think like a hacker to complete each simulation and join team Oblivion on their mission to thwart cybercriminals!

Hacker is a unique programming game with many novel elements. To gain a clear understanding of the three different phases, as well as the new components and goals that are introduced at each level, visit www.thinkfun.com/learn-coding for How to Play videos, strategy tips, and more!

Game Components Included

• Game Grid: A 4x4 grid of 16 tiles resting on 5 rotating platforms (2 clockwise, 3 counter-clockwise).
• Control Panel: Holds tiles that control the movements of Red Agent, Blue Agent, and the Revolving Platforms.
• Challenge Booklet: Contains parameters for 40 (3-part) coding simulations.
• 2 Agent Tokens: Red Agent (in all simulations) and Blue Agent (in the final 20 simulations). Each moves according to Movement Tiles.
• 9 Movement Tiles: Placed in the Control Panel; instruct Agents to move forward, backward, left, or right.
• 13 Revolving Platform Tiles: Instruct Revolving Platforms to rotate 90 degrees (direction indicated by white arrows on the tile).
• 5 Double-sided Transaction Tiles: Revolving Platform Tiles that cannot be separated during the HACK IT phase.
• Transaction Link Token: Links two Movement Tiles during the Intermediate FIX IT phase.
• 3 Data File Tokens: Must be picked up in numerical order during the CODE IT phase.
• 2 Exit Point Tokens: End locations for Agents during the CODE IT phase.
• Virus Token: End location for Red Agent during the HACK IT phase.
• Alarm Token: Used in Beginner and Advanced FIX IT phases. Triggers program end safely when an Agent touches it.
• 2 Lock Tokens: Used in Expert Challenges. Restrict Agents from being in the same row or column simultaneously.
• Solution Booklet: Divided into three sections for solutions, one phase at a time. (Solutions for Challenges 61-120 are found by flipping the book upside down).

How to Play

Each of the 40 simulations consists of three interconnected phases:

• Phase 1 - CODE IT: Program the Agents to pick up Data Files and reach their corresponding Exit Points.
• Phase 2 - HACK IT: Analyze the program from Phase 1, looking for security vulnerabilities. Discover how a hacker could alter the program and infect it with a Virus.
• Phase 3 - FIX IT: Use knowledge of system weaknesses to secure the program. Prevent a cyberattack with Alarms, Transactions, and Locks.

See the Phases demonstrated at www.thinkfun.com/learn-coding.

Setup

1. Remove all pieces from the punchboards. Place the Agents, Exit Points, Virus, and Alarm Tokens into their token stands.
2. Select a Challenge from the Challenge Booklet.
3. Place Tokens on your Game Grid to match the illustration shown under PLATFORM SETUP. Note: Place Data File Tokens flat on the Game Grid.
4. Place Revolving Platform Tiles on your Control Panel to match the CONTROL PANEL SETUP.

Understanding the Control Panel and Game Grid

Each Challenge shows a Control Panel with between four and ten Time Steps.

During each Time Step, an instruction is given to either an Agent (Red or Blue) or one of the five Revolving Platforms through two types of instruction tiles:

• Movement Tile: Instructs an Agent to move up, down, right, or left one space. Movements are relative to the Game Grid itself, not the Agents.
• Revolving Platform Tile: Instructs its corresponding platform to rotate 90 degrees in the direction of the white arrows on the Tile. Any Tokens on a platform will rotate along with it.

Rotating a Revolving Platform:

Each of the five Revolving Platforms on the Game Grid is made up of the four tiles surrounding a colored handle. To rotate a Platform, use the handle to gently lift the platform just above the height of the tiles resting on the Game Grid. Then, rotate the platform 90 degrees in the direction of the black arrows printed on the handle (these directions match the white arrows on the Revolving Platform Tiles). Lower the Platform so it is once again level with the rest of the Game Grid.

See the Platforms rotate at www.thinkfun.com/learn-coding.

Phase 1 - CODE IT

CODE IT GOAL: Program Red Agent to arrive at the Red Exit Point. Do not let the Agent reach the Virus, or the control systems will be infected!

STEPS TO CODING A PROGRAM:

1. Examine the Game Grid and Control Panel, noting which Platform(s) will rotate, and how many times the Agent will move to a new space.
2. Determine which direction the Agent should move during each time step marked with a solid red square.
   • The Agent must remain on the Game Grid at all times.
   • The Agent must pick up any Data File Tokens in numerical order.
   • The Agent will automatically pick up a Data File when it moves into a space with the lowest-numbered File still on the Grid.
   • An Agent may land on a space with higher-numbered Data Files before lower-numbered Data Files, but the Agent won't pick them up.
3. Add Movement Tiles to the Control Panel to program the Agent's path. Point the Movement Tiles in the direction you want the Agent to move (forward, backward, left, or right).
4. Execute your program, moving Red Agent around the Game Grid according to the instructions on the Control Panel. When the Agent picks up the Data Files in numerical order, and lands at the Exit Point after the last instruction – YOU WIN!

CHECKING YOUR SOLUTIONS: You can verify your CODE IT solution is correct by carefully executing the program. Double-check your program against the Solution Booklet, as you will need your CODE IT program for Phase 2 (HACK IT).

Note: The solutions for the CODE IT phase are found within the top third of the Solution Booklet.

Once you have verified the correct solution, leave your CODE IT program on the CONTROL PANEL.

Phase 2 - HACK IT

HACK IT GOAL: Think like a hacker and alter the program from the CODE IT phase so that Red Agent reaches the Virus Token, infecting the control systems. Only by discovering the hacker's plan can you hope to prevent the attack in the final FIX IT phase.

STEPS TO HACKING A PROGRAM:

1. Reset the Game Grid according to the original set-up outlined on the Challenge Card. Leave your CODE IT program on the Control Panel.
2. Examine the Game Grid and Control Panel and note where the Virus Token is located in relation to the Exit Point Token.
3. Review the "Hacker Constraints" described on pages 14-15, and determine how a hacker could alter your existing program to bring Red Agent into contact with the Virus Token.
4. Alter your program as if you were a hacker, sliding the instruction tiles from your CODE IT program left and right in their respective rows. Note: Data Files do not affect a hacked program; it does not matter whether they are picked up or not.
5. Execute the hacked program, moving Red Agent around the Game Grid according to the instructions in the Control Panel. When Red Agent arrives at the Virus Token – YOU WIN!

CHECKING YOUR SOLUTIONS: The solutions for the HACK IT phase are found within the middle section of the Solution Booklet. Before moving on to Phase 3 (FIX IT), reveal the HACK IT solution while leaving the CODE IT solution visible.

Leave your HACK IT program on the Control Panel.

HACKER CONSTRAINTS

Computer systems prevent hackers from altering programming instructions directly, but a hacker could potentially change the timing of instructions. By sliding instructions left and right within their respective rows on the Control Panel, players can simulate this.

IMPORTANT: A HACK IT program may contain fewer tiles than the CODE IT program. Unused Tiles in the HACK IT solutions have diagonal lines running through them.

A Hacker Can:

• Slide any of the Tiles left or right within their own rows. For example, an instruction can be slid one Time Step to the left or right.

A Hacker Cannot:

• Alter the order of Tiles within a row.
• Alter the orientation of the Movement Tiles (e.g., change a 'move right' tile to a 'move up' tile).
• Make more than one tile in the same row occupy the same Time Step.
• Make both a Platform instruction and an Agent instruction occur during the same Time Step.
• If in the Correct Program, a CODE IT Agent instruction occurs after a Platform instruction, a hacker cannot make the Agent instruction occur first.

Phase 3 - FIX IT

FIX IT GOAL: Prevent an attack on your program by placing an Alarm Token in a space that would interrupt the hacked program, safely shutting it down before the Agent can reach the Virus.

STEPS TO FIXING A PROGRAM:

1. Reset the Game Grid according to the original set-up in the Challenge. Leave your HACK IT program on the Control Panel.
2. Examine the Game Grid and Control Panel, noting the empty spaces on the Game Grid and their relationship to the Virus and Exit Tokens.
3. Determine on which of the empty spaces you should place an Alarm Token. When an Agent comes into contact with the Alarm, the Alarm is triggered and the program safely shuts down.
   • When following the hacked program, the Agent should arrive at the Alarm Token before it can reach the Virus Token.
   • When following the original program from the CODE IT phase, the Agent should miss the Alarm completely.
4. Place the Alarm Token on the Game Grid. If the Alarm foils the hacked program, but does not interfere with the CODE IT program – YOU WIN!

TIP: Keep the solutions to the CODE IT and HACK IT Challenges handy! You may want to move your Agent along the CODE IT and HACK IT paths once or twice more in order to determine the best spot for the Alarm.

Watch an Alarm shut down a hacked program at www.thinkfun.com/learn-coding.

STOP AND PLAY: You are now ready to play all of the Beginner Challenges! We recommend you play FIX IT, Challenge 3, followed by the remaining Beginner Challenges. When you are ready to play the upper level challenges, review pages 17-20.

Challenge Levels Explained

Intermediate Challenges

Transaction Tiles & Transaction Links are introduced. A Transaction Link connects two adjacent instruction Tiles in the same row, meaning these two instructions must always occur one after the other.

CODE IT GOAL: Program Red Agent to retrieve all Data Files, avoid the Virus, and arrive at the Red Exit Point.

HACK IT GOAL: Alter the CODE IT program to cause the Red Agent to land at the Virus. Remember, two instructions in a Transaction Tile can never be split apart.

FIX IT GOAL: Foil the hack by adding one Transaction Link between two adjacent Movement Tiles in your CODE IT program, linking the moves together.

HINT: Pay close attention to which Movement Tiles you split apart during the HACK IT phase.

Note: The Alarm Token is not used for Intermediate Challenges.

Advanced Challenges

Blue Agent and Blue Exit Point Tokens are introduced.

CODE IT GOAL: Program both Agents to collect Data Files and reach their corresponding Exit Points. Either Agent can pick up any Data File, but Files must be picked up in numerical order. Both Agents may be on the same space simultaneously but must avoid the Virus Token.

HACK IT GOAL: Discover what a Hacker could do to destroy both Agents. Alter the CODE IT program so both Agents reach the Virus Token. Note: When one Agent reaches the Virus, it stops executing further instructions, but the program continues for the other Agent and any remaining Platform instructions.

FIX IT GOAL: Place an Alarm Token on an empty space so that at least one Agent triggers it while executing the hacked program, before reaching the Virus. The Alarm placement must not interfere with the CODE IT program (neither Agent should reach the Alarm when following the CODE IT path).

Expert Challenges

Locks are introduced. A Lock is triggered when both active Agents are simultaneously in the same locked row or column. During setup, examine the Challenge Card to see which row or column is marked with a Lock and place the Lock Token nearby.

CODE IT GOAL: Program both Agents to pick up Data Files and reach their corresponding Exit Points. Your program must not cause both Agents to be in the locked row/column at the same time.

HACK IT GOAL: Alter the program so both Agents reach the Virus Token. Your hacked program must avoid having the two Agents in the locked row/column at the same time.

FIX IT GOAL: Place a second Lock on a row/column. The new Lock must trigger the Hacked program to shut down before either Agent reaches the Virus. The additional Lock must not interfere with the CODE IT program.

TIP: During CODE IT and HACK IT phases, pay close attention to every row and column that both Agents occupy simultaneously.

A Closer Look at HACKER

ThinkFun's unplugged coding games introduce players to key computer science concepts. Hacker™ introduces concurrency, where programs with multiple processors are divided into subtasks (threads) that can run simultaneously. While instructions within a single thread execute in order, the exact order of instructions from different threads (called "interleaving") cannot be predicted. Reasoning about all possible interleavings requires computational thinking and imagination.

Hacker allows players to reason about interleavings using strategies similar to those used by real programmers. Transactions, first featured in the intermediate challenges, are one way programmers manage the complexity of reasoning about interleavings by ensuring that certain instructions can never be split apart. In addition, in the expert challenges, the locks mimic a strategy used in real concurrency programming, where locks are used to prevent any interleaving that would cause two threads to occupy the same critical section of code at the same time.

Furthermore, the alarm is a metaphor for how programmers throw an exception when a program enters an unusual state, catching a problem early before it leads to catastrophic failure. Hacker, a Cybersecurity Logic Game, provides a taste of what it is like to analyze a multi-threaded program with a security mindset, thinking through all the ways a program might go wrong.

About the Inventor

Mark Engelberg is the inventor of Hacker™. To create his growing line of unplugged coding games, which includes Code Master™ and the //CODE Programming Game Series, Mark draws on his experience as a programmer of virtual reality simulations for NASA, as well as his many years of experience as a teacher of computer science and mathematical logic. Mark believes that kids of all ages can and should learn how a computer executes programs – entirely through play!

Mark Engelberg is also one of the challenge developers for ThinkFun's blockbuster game Rush Hour®.

Vesa Timonen contributed to challenge development for Hacker.

Rotating tile transference mechanism developed by Tactrics BV (EP15182865.4) Used here with permission.