Trakia Cyber Range

Description

Digital Innovation Hub Trakia builds and offers free-of-charge a Cyber Range as a Service solution.

1. Next-generation cyber-range-as-a-service - for training and education

The majority of security training today is done through online and face to face training courses. In both cases, most of the learning occurs through listening to videos or live lectures, and through reading notes or slides. Relatively little time is spent on hands-on learning. The use of cyber ranges changes that as it can provide a convenient and more cost-effective way of delivering hands-on training, as well as the associated training assessment and certification. According to Gartner, by 2022, 15% of large enterprises were already using cyber ranges to develop the skills of their security teams, up from less than 1% a few years back.

Security education specifically refers to academia as opposed to the lifelong learning and training that professionals undergo after they leave university. One of the recurring complaints from industry is the lack of hands-on experience by young graduates. The root cause of such a gap is the cost and complexity of providing students with hands-on experience while at the same time not diluting the educational value of university degrees. Universities around the world have begun looking at cyber ranges as a means of improving teaching and learning.

2. Next-generation cyber-range-as-a-service - for Proof of Concept

Cyber Range is a virtual environment that supports cyber security training, cyber security exercises, testing of contingency plans or incident response processes to enhance the resilience and increase cyber security capabilities of organizations.

3. Next-generation cyber-range-as-a-service - for competence / recruitment assessments

Competence is a set of attributes such as knowledge, skills and abilities required to successfully perform specific tasks. As the security skills gap increases, organisations need an efficient way of assessing and selecting the right personnel. Using cyber ranges can allow organisations to perform competence assessment beyond the traditional tests, based on multiple choice questions or theoretical simulations. Cyber ranges allow the assessment to be practical and based on the successful completion of practical tasks and/or on the observation of user behaviour and choices made in the execution of practical tasks or assignments.

As cyber ranges are used for competence assessment, it is also to be expected that they will change hiring practices allowing organisations to better identify, validate and hire suitable candidates. This application is highly dependent on the development of the national and international competence frameworks currently being developed around the world.