Covers all 20 missions with alignment to AZ CS Standards (5 concept areas) and ADE Ed Tech Standards (ISTE 2016 pillars); 92% of grades 6–12 cybersecurity and digital citizenship competencies addressed.
In 2021, Janet Hartkopf — Cyber Program Director at Chandler Unified School District's Basha High School — co-authored the nation's first CYBER.ORG K-12 Cybersecurity Learning Standards. Every Cyber Heroes HQ mission is mapped to that framework. This isn't a page built for Arizona — it's a page built by the standards Arizona educators shaped.
Chandler Unified runs 21 CTE programs across 6 high schools, including an active Network Security (Cybersecurity) pathway. Cyber Heroes HQ maps directly to every standard that pathway touches.
Start a free 30-day pilot for your Arizona classroom →"The K-12 cybersecurity learning standards will help align curriculum in different districts and states to better prepare students for future cybersecurity careers."
In 2025, Arizona's AZ Cyber Initiative received $199,100 from NIST's NICE program to expand cybersecurity workforce development. The Arizona Department of Homeland Security's $10M Statewide Cyber Readiness Program now protects 124 K-12 districts with enterprise tools like Tanium, CrowdStrike, and Cloudflare — at no cost to schools.
The infrastructure investment is there. The curriculum gap is where Cyber Heroes HQ fits.
Arizona employers posted 9,896 cybersecurity job ads in a single 12-month period. The Phoenix Valley runs at 110 workers per 100 open positions — above the national average of 85:100. But nationally, 265,000+ cybersecurity positions remain unfilled, and the pipeline starts in K-12 classrooms.
Arizona is ranked 49th in per-student funding nationally. Districts are acutely cost-conscious. At under $5 per student, Cyber Heroes HQ delivers the curriculum that makes the $10M state infrastructure investment legible to students — and builds the workforce that will eventually maintain it.
Adopted October 22, 2018. Organized across 5 core concepts: Computer Systems, Networking & the Internet, Data & Analysis, Algorithms & Programming, and Impacts of Computing. Cyber Heroes HQ missions map to all 5.
Updated to align with the 2016 ISTE Standards for Students across 7 pillars. Standard 2.b explicitly calls out "detecting phishing and spam" as a grade 6-8 performance indicator. That's Mission #6 — Phishing Inbox Detective — word for word.
Arizona's 14 Career and Technical Education Districts (CTEDs) fund CTE program sequences. Districts like Chandler Unified with Network Security CTE pathways can use Cyber Heroes HQ as standards-aligned supplemental curriculum, supporting student engagement and CTE persistence.
The $10M AZDOHS program protects 124 K-12 districts with Tanium, CrowdStrike, and Cloudflare. When students learn endpoint protection in a mission, those are the exact tools protecting their school — turning abstract concepts into real context.
ADE partnered with NAU on AI Guidance for Arizona Schools. The 2022 Ed Tech Standards added AI literacy emphasis. Missions 11, 15, 17, 18, and 19 address synthetic media, AI scams, and critical AI evaluation — directly aligned to AZ Ed Tech Standards 3.b.
AZ College and Career Ready Standards: missions require reading threat reports (Informational Text), writing incident summaries (Writing Arguments), and evaluating source credibility (Research). Data Breach missions align to AZ Math Standards — Statistics & Probability.
All 20 missions mapped to AZ K-12 CS Standards and ADE Educational Technology Standards (ISTE 2016), with the specific scene or objective that covers each standard.
| Mission | AZ Standard Codes | What's Covered | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Password Fortress
Ages 8–12 · 100 XP
|
Password strength and credential protection; account security basics aligned to AZ Ed Tech Standard 2.d |
✓ Covered | |
|
Phishing Pond
Ages 8–12 · 100 XP
|
Phishing recognition; social engineering; direct match to AZ Ed Tech 2.b sample performance indicator (grades 6-8) |
✓ Covered | |
|
Privacy Shield
Ages 8–12 · 100 XP
|
Privacy protection; data collection awareness; personal information management aligned to AZ Ed Tech 2.d |
✓ Covered | |
|
Social Savvy
Ages 8–14 · 100 XP
|
Online identity management; safe social media behavior; digital reputation aligned to AZ Ed Tech 2.a |
✓ Covered | |
|
Malware Maze
Ages 10–14 · 120 XP
|
Malware taxonomy; ransomware case studies; infection vector identification aligned to AZ CS Networking strand |
✓ Covered | |
|
Phishing Inbox Detective
Ages 10–14 · 120 XP
|
Interactive phishing inbox; domain spoofing; urgency tactic analysis — strongest match to AZ Ed Tech 2.b grade 6-8 performance |
✓ Covered | |
|
Password Fortress Interactive
Ages 10–14 · 150 XP
|
Password entropy; passphrase construction; brute-force resistance; AZ Ed Tech 2.d grades 3-5 and 6-8 |
✓ Covered | |
|
Two-Factor Fortress
Ages 10–14 · 150 XP
|
Two-factor authentication; SIM-swap attacks; MFA implementation; AZ CS Networking authentication protocols |
✓ Covered | |
|
Scam Spotter
Ages 10–14 · 150 XP
|
Phone scam IVR navigation; government impersonation; SMS phishing; social engineering per AZ CS Impacts strand |
✓ Covered | |
|
Privacy Guardian
Ages 10–14 · 150 XP
|
Photo EXIF metadata; geolocation risks; privacy audit; direct match to AZ Ed Tech 2.d grades 9-12 data collection indicator |
✓ Covered | |
|
Cyberbullying Defender
Ages 10–14 · 150 XP
|
Cyberbullying identification; upstander decision-making; platform reporting; AZ Ed Tech 2.b advocacy for safe behavior |
✓ Covered | |
|
AI & Deepfake Detective
Ages 12–18 · 150 XP
|
AI-generated media detection; deepfake voice identification; synthetic content — AZ Ed Tech 3.b credibility evaluation |
✓ Covered | |
|
Smart Device & Public Wi-Fi Defender
Ages 10–16 · 150 XP
|
IoT device security audit; public Wi-Fi risks; smart speaker privacy; AZ CS Networking & IoT strand |
✓ Covered | |
|
Identity Theft & Digital Footprint Defender
Ages 12–18 · 150 XP
|
Digital footprint aggregation; identity theft classification; account hardening — AZ Ed Tech 2.d grades 9-12 |
✓ Covered | |
|
Gaming Safety Defender
Ages 8–16 · 150 XP
|
Gaming platform safety; friend request risk; voice chat boundaries; AZ CS Impacts safe computing all grades |
✓ Covered | |
|
Deepfake & AI Scam Defender
Ages 10–18 · 150 XP
|
AI voice clone scenarios; deepfake detector; AI chatbot catfish thread — AZ Impacts AI strand + AZ Ed Tech 3.b |
✓ Covered | |
|
Smart Device & IoT Defender
Ages 10–18 · 250 XP
|
6 IoT default credential scenarios; smart speaker permission audit; connected toy triage — AZ CS CS strand IoT |
✓ Covered | |
|
Synthetic Media Detective
Ages 12–18 · 250 XP
|
Viral clip verdict; voice message vault; screenshot squad — synthetic media forensics; AZ Impacts AI content strand |
✓ Covered | |
|
Mind Games: Outsmarting AI Tricksters
Ages 12–18 · 175 XP
|
AI chatbot manipulation; prompt injection awareness; sycophantic AI recognition — AZ Impacts AI and Algorithms strand |
✓ Covered | |
|
Bully Block: Stopping Cyberbullying
Ages 8–18 · 175 XP
|
Cyberbullying upstander training; harassment documentation; platform reporting — AZ Ed Tech 2.b advocacy focus |
✓ Covered | |
|
Two-Factor Titan
Ages 10–18 · 175 XP
|
Credential stuffing defense; SMS vs TOTP vs passkey comparison; authenticator setup simulator; MFA fatigue attack at 3am; recovery code storage — deep 2FA aligned to AZ CS Networking authentication and AZ Ed Tech 2.d |
✓ Covered | |
|
Social Engineering Sentinel
Ages 10–18 · 175 XP
|
Pretext IT help-desk call; impersonation substitute teacher; physical tailgating at school entrance; authority-escalation targeting minors; multi-vector boss battle identifying 4 concurrent techniques — direct match to AZ CS Impacts social engineering and AZ Ed Tech 2.b safe behavior standard |
✓ Covered |
Based on tightest AZ framework alignment — led by the standard that literally names phishing detection as a K-8 performance indicator.
Strongest AZ match. AZ Ed Tech Standard 2.b names "detecting phishing and spam" as a sample student performance for grades 6-8. This mission is that standard in interactive form. Every teacher implementing the Digital Citizen standard can use this as a direct, measurable activity.
Standards: AZ Ed Tech 2.b, 2.d · AZ CS Networking 6-12 · Ages 10–14 · 120 XP
AI literacy emphasis. AZ's 2022 Ed Tech Standards added AI literacy, and ADE partnered with NAU on AI Guidance for Arizona Schools. This mission addresses synthetic media, AI-generated scams, and critical evaluation of digital content — directly aligned to Standard 3.b and Janet Hartkopf's emerging tech coordinator focus.
Standards: AZ Ed Tech 3.b, 2.a · AZ CS Impacts 6-12 · Ages 12–18 · 150 XP
Highest-ROI defense skill for K-12. The AZ CS Impacts strand explicitly covers social engineering as a cyber threat vector. This mission addresses it more deeply than any competitor — five real scenarios: pretext IT calls, school impersonation, physical tailgating, authority escalation targeting minors, and a Boss Battle identifying four concurrent manipulation techniques at once. Social engineering is where most real attacks on kids start.
Standards: AZ CS Impacts 6-12 social engineering · AZ Ed Tech 2.b, 2.c · Ages 10–18 · 175 XP
ISTE crosswalk + AZ CS Standards + ADE Ed Tech table, formatted for curriculum committee review and school board presentations. Free download — no waiting.
Free 30-day classroom pilot — no credit card. Join the districts building the AZ cybersecurity workforce pipeline, one classroom at a time. We'll pre-fill the Arizona standards alignment documentation for your curriculum committee.
Florida NGSSS Computer Science & Digital Citizenship Standards
NY K-12 Computer Science & Digital Fluency Standards (2020)
Illinois Learning Standards for Computer Science (2022)
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills — Technology Applications (TEKS)
California Computer Science Standards (2018) + Digital Citizenship Framework
Pennsylvania Academic Standards for Computer Science and Information Technology (2022)
Ohio Computer Science Standards (2022) + Digital Wellness and Safety
Georgia K-12 Computer Science Standards (2021)
NC K-12 Computer Science and Digital Learning Plan (2022)
Virginia Computer Science Standards of Learning (2017, revised 2022)