CICI: Regional: Substrate for Cybersecurity Education; a Platform for Training, Research and Experimentation (SCEPTRE)

George Washington University, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

Reasonably safe and secure cyberinfrastructures cannot be built and operated without adequately trained human beings with a broad range of applicable technical skills. Such individuals are in short supply and the demand is growing steadily. This new workforce should be trained in realistic and adaptable environments within the context of existing policies and technologies. Furthermore, due to the complexity of the problem, it is imperative that the individuals are well versed in a broad spectrum of related subjects, which means, ideally, trained at an academic institution where they can find instruction in a variety of areas of study. The researchers plan to address this critical shortage of both the people and the skills needed to meet demand by creating an educational program in cybersecurity, supported by a highly effective, flexible platform designed to deploy real-world training scenarios while integrating cybereducation resources available at multiple prominent national sites. Skills acquired in this program are applicable far beyond academic or research settings, and the developed technology will serve as a universal template for cybersecurity training. The most important component of the program is the human element - the students, the future cybersecurity experts. The project creates a foundation for consolidating Cybersecurity into an attractive field of study that leads to highly sought-after qualifications and thus opens a path to long-term, rewarding careers. In collaboration with the Michigan Cyber Range (MCR) facility operated by Merit Network, and the Cyber Academy operated by the College of Professional Studies (CPS) at the George Washington University, the project proposes to establish and deploy an open and flexible technology platform for broad-context cybersecurity education and hands-on training. Initially, the platform will be used in developing and delivering a credit bearing Practicum (2 credit hours) that addresses Intrusion Detection and Remediation. The course will be transferable toward the undergraduate certificate in Protection and Defense of Computer Networks, which is part of the Bachelor's degree completion in cybersecurity. The practicum is a hands-on training that will cover a broad range of network intrusion, prevention, and detection techniques such as implementation and testing of IDS security plans, security monitoring, intrusion detection, alarm management, analysis of events and trends, and vulnerability management. The program utilizes a high-performance, flexible environment built on Cisco's UCS hardware platform with a modified OpenStack framework. This multi-tenant system, originally developed under an NSF grant, facilitates the full integration of the Cyber Academy with the MCR resources. Thanks to its virtual nature and its tight coupling with physical cyberinfrastructure components such as HPC, cluster storage arrays, public and private clouds, 100G optical networks, and a wide variety of SDN technologies, the system is able to deploy nearly any cybersecurity scenario, on demand.