- Published:
- Wednesday 3 June 2026 at 9:00 am
| Forty of Victoria’s best and brightest young minds in IT gathered for an immersive cybersecurity bootcamp event. |
It’s an ordinary day at Melbourne Airport when an email offering half price flights lands in the inboxes of all staff. An employee is quick to click on the link in the email to claim the offer, before realising their mistake – the offer wasn’t legitimate, it was instead a phishing attack. A hacker named Jack now has remote access to the employee’s computer and airport systems, taking swift action to block all air traffic control signals. The entire airport is thrown into chaos, and police have been called in to get to the bottom of the incident.
The scenario is enough to raise the heart rate of any cybersecurity expert but, luckily enough, this incident was a fictitious, immersive simulation for 40 of Victoria’s best and brightest young minds in IT. The students played the role of police as part of a one-day event to help them understand how their tech expertise can be used for the greater good.
The re_B00TCMP program is run by the Joint Police Cybercrime Coordination Centre (JPC3) in partnership with Australian Federal Police, local police forces, private sector organisations and renowned cybersecurity experts. After successful iterations in South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and New South Wales, the program was recently run for the first time in Victoria.
The event brought together 40 secondary school students aged between 12 and 17 years old with a knack for technology and a keen interest in the cybersecurity space.
Cybercrime Squad Detective Senior Sergeant Carl Keenan said participants were nominated from schools around the state through the Department of Education and Training, and further vetted to assess whether their skills are up to speed with those required for the program.
“We were looking for kids who are highly skilled and interested in IT, and who might be pushing online boundaries by participating in hacker forums or other risky behaviour online,” Det Sen Sgt Keenan said.
“The aim of the program is to inspire these young minds to channel their passion for IT into positive, lawful and socially beneficial activities rather than sinister ones.”
| Cybersecurity experts from law enforcement and the private sector joined forces to help young participants see how their technology skills can be used for good. |
The student becomes the master
Participants in the re_B00TCMP event spent the day hearing from cyber experts about careers in the industry, real-life cybersecurity incident examples and simulated scenarios to work through.
One of those simulations was the airport phishing attack, facilitated by Victoria Police Cybercrime Squad members, intelligence analysts and other cybersecurity experts from both Victoria Police and AFP. During the hour-long immersive scenario, participants were put in the shoes of cybercrime investigators to lead the response to the incident alongside other specialists and intelligence experts.
“The scenario was a good opportunity for the kids to see what it’s like on the law enforcement side of cybersecurity incidents, and to understand how strong tech skills can be used for good,” Det Sen Sgt Keenan said.
“We also placed a big focus on the consequences for our fictional hacker, Jack, as a reminder that cyber criminals do get caught. Those who do the wrong thing are not anonymous and there’s always a trail of breadcrumbs for us to follow to track them down.”
Collaboration with facilitators was a key pillar of the event, and simple measures were taken to help participants feel comfortable in the presence of law enforcement members and other senior cyber experts.
“It was important for us to make sure the students were comfortable working with and even challenging us during discussions and exercises, so there were no uniforms or corporate attire worn by the facilitators and mentors at the event,” Det Sen Sgt Keenan said.
Promising pathways
It’s not just the children involved in the program who are reaping its rewards. Parents and teachers also took part in an afternoon session highlighting the many career opportunities available for these budding cybersecurity experts.
The Victoria Police Cybercrime Squad offers a vast range of career pathways for both police and Victorian Public Service employees – from cybercrime investigations, covert operations and intelligence analysis to cryptocurrency and digital forensics.
For Det Sen Sgt Keenan and his Cybercrime Squad colleagues, the enthusiasm and skills shown by participants brought about excitement for the next generation of cyber experts.
“We were all pretty amazed by the high level of knowledge and expertise that these kids have at such a young age,” he said.
“We know they’re at an impressionable age and any opportunity we get to help them see how to channel those skills in a positive way is really important.
“We wouldn’t be surprised if we end up working alongside them someday.”
Editorial Cassandra Stanghi
Photography AFP Production
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