On 22 July, I had the opportunity to teach students about cybersecurity at Sree Saraswathi Thyagaraja College.

Honestly, I never thought I would get the opportunity to teach at such a great college. The campus was huge—much bigger than I expected.

I had around 3–4 hours with the students, and I didn't know exactly how much they already knew about cybersecurity. More importantly, it was my first time teaching, and I had no previous teaching experience.

I was worried.

But that uncertainty became one of the most valuable parts of the experience.

Why the Class?

The students were second-year degree students. They used computers and phones, played games, and already had cybersecurity-related modules in their syllabus.

But there is a big difference between studying cybersecurity and seeing how it works in reality.

I wanted to show them something different.

The goal was simple:

1. Introduce cybersecurity. 2. Explain malware and its real-world threats. 3. Demonstrate detection using a custom tool. 4. Show them that they could build things like this themselves.

“

“Hackers aren't people in hoodies randomly typing commands. They're curious problem solvers. And the world needs more of them.”

The Real Challenge Was Me

Even though I've spent a lot of time learning hacking and cybersecurity, I'm not an expert in Python.

I openly told the students that.

And surprisingly, that made the class easier.

There was no need to pretend that I knew everything. Instead, it showed them something much more important:

If I can learn, experiment, build, fail, and improve—so can they.

The students were extremely curious and showed great interest throughout the class.

They asked questions, experimented, learned, and improvised.

A huge shoutout to those students. They made the entire experience feel natural, interactive, and enjoyable.

Phase 01 — Understanding Cybersecurity

I started by introducing cybersecurity and explaining the huge gap between Hollywood hacking and real-world cybersecurity.

We discussed why curiosity is important—but also why curiosity needs boundaries.

Cybersecurity is not about blindly trying things.

It's about understanding systems while respecting:

• Laws
• Authorization
• Privacy
• Ethics
• Responsible security practices

We also went through basic Linux concepts and Bash commands.

But thanks to their teacher, I had to stop that section midway because the students already knew many of the concepts. I had underestimated them. That was actually a great surprise.

We also discussed how curiosity influenced well-known hackers and programmers such as Linus Torvalds and Kevin Mitnick, and how curiosity and continuous learning can shape a technical career.

Phase 02 — Understanding Malware

Next, we introduced different types of malware and discussed how much damage malicious software can cause.

For a controlled classroom demonstration, I prepared a custom, isolated malware simulation specifically for the class.

Safety was the priority.

The demonstration was designed with containment and a kill switch so that it could be stopped safely if anything went wrong.

The simulation was intentionally simple: it consumed CPU resources, causing CPU usage to increase and making the system become increasingly sluggish.

The students were waiting to see what would happen.

When the system became difficult to control, their reaction was priceless. The person who created the demonstration was suddenly struggling to stop it.

They held their breath, waiting to see what would happen next.

I already knew the system would take some time to recover because of the CPU load, but seeing their reaction helped communicate something that slides and definitions cannot:

Malware can create real operational problems.

And suspicious software should never be trusted simply because it looks harmless.

The Persistence Lesson

After I stopped the simulation, I thought the demonstration was finished.

Then, about a minute later, the activity started rising again.

That became one of the best lessons of the entire session:

In real-world attacks, attackers may attempt to establish persistence so malicious activity can return after a restart or other interruption.

That simple moment helped demonstrate why defenders need to think beyond:

"I stopped the malware."

The real question is:

"Did I remove everything that allows it to come back?"

Phase 03 — Detection, Evidence & Cleanup

Now it was time to demonstrate the defensive side.

We discussed the importance of:

• Reporting incidents
• Collecting evidence
• Identifying malicious files
• Understanding persistence mechanisms
• Safely removing threats
• Preserving useful forensic information

I ran my custom malware-detection tool, specifically designed for the classroom demonstration.

Together, we investigated the system and identified the file responsible for the persistence mechanism.

We then safely removed the simulated malware and verified the result.

I also showed the students the detection output and explained why documenting findings matters.

In real investigations, evidence and documentation can become important for:

• Future forensic analysis
• Incident response
• Internal investigation
• Security reporting
• Legal or authorized investigations

What I Learned

When the class ended, I hoped the students had learned a few new concepts and rules that they could apply in real life.

But I learned something too.

Students appreciate honesty and friendly interaction. They don't need someone pretending to know everything.

They need open facts. They need real examples. They need demonstrations that connect theory to reality. And sometimes, they need those unexpected "WOW" moments that make a concept memorable.

I also made mistakes. And honestly, I think that's essential to teaching. Nothing is perfect. Teaching is also about learning, adapting, and improving.

Beyond the Classroom

This experience reminded me that cybersecurity education should not only be about memorizing commands or definitions.

Students should be encouraged to:

• Question.
• Experiment.
• Build.
• Break things safely.
• Understand why they broke.
• Fix them.

And most importantly: Know where the legal and ethical boundaries are.

Conclusion

This class wasn't really about teaching code.

It was about showing students that they have a place in cybersecurity.

The cybersecurity industry needs more curious people. More problem solvers. More builders. More researchers. More defenders. And more unique thinkers who are willing to look at a problem differently.

From hacking to defending—the goal is not simply to know how systems can be broken.

The goal is to understand them well enough to protect them.

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“The difference between a HACKER & a HERO is just their GOAL.”