Student Privacy Protection¶

Note

The Virginia Cyber Range strives to maintain student data privacy. One way to help students protect their privacy is by allowing them to self-register for courses and CTFs without instructors entering student names and email addresses into our system. Additionally, for all accounts, the Virginia Cyber Range login system stores as little identifying information as possible by utilizing open standards for access delegation without passwords. This article will explore different methods of protecting student privacy.

Self-registration¶

One feature that we offer toward this goal is the option to self-register in both the exercise area and in Cloud CTF competitions. With self-registration, students can use their preferred authentication provider, along with their choice of email address.

In the exercise area, students can self-register using invitation codes. Instructors first generate an invitation code that they provide to their students. Please see the section titled Inviting Users with an Invitation Code for more information. Please have students see the section titled Joining a Course via an Invitation Code for more information.

In Cloud CTF, students can self-register by visiting the competition URL directly. Instructors need to simply enable public registrations and share the event URL to the students. For more information, please see the section titled How to Setup a Public CTF Competition

Cloud CTF Player Anonymity¶

One way to enhance anonymity in Cloud CTF is to assign non-identifying team names to CTF players. CTF administrators (instructors) can edit team names to remove identifying information, or players can be allowed to edit their own team names in the CTF administrative settings. For more information on how to change the name of a team, please see the section titled How to Edit a Team for more information. To learn how to allow players to edit their own team names, please see the section titled Allow/Disallow Players to Change Team Name.

Scoreboard Visibility¶

The Cloud CTF scoreboard is a great way to track how a competition is going; however, some use cases for Cloud CTF may not lend themselves to having a scoreboard. In cases where players’ scores should be kept hidden, CTF admins can hide on a team-by-team or competition-wide basis.

In order to hide a team from the scoreboard, you can follow the instructions in this section of our team management guide. If you want to disable the scoreboard completely, please see the article titled Scoreboard Visibility for more information.

Have a Question? Contact Support¶

Important

Students, please reach out to your instructor who can submit a ticket to our Support Team on your behalf.

We're here to help you. If you still have questions after reviewing the information above, please feel free to submit a ticket with our Support Team and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.