Information Assurance Education Simulation

United States Military Academy, West Point NY

Investigators

Abstract

EIA 0325339 Ronald Dodge U. S. Military Academy Title: Information Assurance Education Simulation This ITR medium award provides support to create tools that provide hands-on training in information assurance. The research will provide an environment through simulation that presents a user with avatars needed to construct and manage an information system. This solution, being prototyped at the United States Military Academy (USMA), addresses the lack of hands-on training by building an information assurance simulation that integrates all the complexities involved in maintaining an information system infrastructure and making it widely available to educational facilities. These complexities include hardware configuration, service requirements, "sizing" the system to the correct capacity, system administrative support, and security configuration. This simulation-based pedagogical application allows users to construct networks, impose policies, and manage system administrators. After constructing a network, the user can run a series of scenarios against the network and watch as the network fails or succeeds based on network load or security attacks. This simulation allows the user to explore the interrelationships between people, procedures, hardware, software, and data and how each of these factors impacts on network design and security. The intellectual merit of the project is centered on the strong research and educational focus of the project. The research crosses the boundaries of disciplines by offering a robust tool for teaching and understanding the fundamentals of construction, management, and security of computer networks. The concept of implementing a network simulation toolset will allow closed-lab experimentation with information assurance issues at a variety of institutions across the nation. The resulting system should provide a platform for enhancing education in many disciplines and settings. The project has a sound evaluation plan that clearly should demonstrate the educational as well as technological benefits of the research to multiple audiences. The broader impact of this project is in providing wide-spread, cost-effective distribution of tools that address an area of national need. This should allow educational institutions with modest facilities and limited expertise to have access to a scalable tool for information assurance education. The scalability and scenario management provided in the simulation allow a wide range of educational institutions to productively incorporate the tools into their curriculum. The emphasis in this project is information assurance aspects of networks through a client-controlled environment for learning without extensive engineering prerequisites. The complete simulation combines all facets of building and managing an information system, creating a seamless application that provides an integrated, engaging, challenging, and competitive information assurance learning environment.