Bonnie Buddy

Bonnie sleeping next to her poop
Tip example
Poop/Scratch example
Evil Bonnie chasing the user's mouse!
Bonnie bringing in a kakapo bird 'present'

Inspiration

Two of our group members are very interested cybersecurity, both being on committee for the Cybersecurity Society. We took this interest and decided to code a fake malware (meoware) that is called "Bonnie Buddy" - modelled after our teammate's cat Bonnie. We were inspired by the Desktop Goose plugin, that messes with your computer and famous malware Bonzi Buddy.

What it does

Bonnie Buddy is a false malware we dubbed "meoware" that is used to teach students about the importance of security in a fun way. Bonnie Buddy appears on your screen and has multiple states it randomly cycles through. Some of these include: Moving randomly similar to the DVD screensaver, chasing after the user's mouse, dragging on helpful tips/images to teach about being secure online and playing a random meow sound effect (which we recorded from people we knew).

How we built it

We collectively used GitHub to work on the code itself, choosing to use Rust as our language. We used the Pixquare app on iPad, Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) and Adobe Fresco to create sprites for Bonnie and her various actions.

Challenges we ran into

One member in our team knew Rust really well, two members had to learn it on the go, and another had very little programming experience overall. The members that were coding learned to use a new library (BEVY). Spriting Bonnie was also somewhat difficult, as we had to convert and combine various images.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud to have been able to learn Rust so quickly and be able to produce a product that we find exciting, but also contributes to wider society by educating those about the dangers of social engineering and clicking random links.

What we learned

We learned how to effectively paired program, switching between the experienced and non-experienced members as drivers. Our non-computer scientist teammate learned the basics of GitHub, too. With two previous winners and two Hackathon newbies, we each had unique perspectives and ideas on how to approach the project. We also learned that people love having an excuse to meow!

What's next for Bonnie Buddy

To solidify its place in the education sector to teach about cybersecurity to organisations such as universities and businesses, we would like the program to be installed if they click on a link sent by a pen-tester. It would have a small opening dialogue explaining what it is and why it's on their device. Then, after the user clicks on the sprite, a battle will begin! If the user answers 70% of Bonnie's cybersecurity questions correctly, then they have the option to ask her to leave. She can stay as an annoying desktop pet if the user chooses.