SPARTA and CONCORDIA joined forces to build modern cybersecurity training infrastructures
16th Feb 2021
SPARTA Cybersecurity Training and Awareness (WP9) team has proceeded to the final stage of its endeavor to improve the state of cybersecurity training and education in EU. After producing the fundamental framework for identification of skills necessary for cybersecurity work roles (SPARTA CSF [1]) and its implementation in good-practice curricula [2], WP9 aims to have practical impact by the deployment of training pilots.
SPARTA activities focus on stronger inclusion of so-called hands-on trainings in labs, a component that is often neglected by cybersecurity study programs. In particular, the team focuses on the exploitation of cyber ranges that allow safe and easy deployment of virtualized infrastructures for the training of cybersecurity abilities.
The SPARTA WP9 embraced the idea of open-source cyber ranges that, compared to commercial products, allow universities to provide students with modern training methods without the need to accept unbearable costs. More importantly, the SPARTA team sees the potential of open platforms that allow own free definition of training scenarios and designing exercises according to individual institutions’ needs. Furthermore, the potential of the creation of a shared marketplace where universities and institutions can easily share the training content, is very promising.
As a result, SPARTA joined forces with CONCORDIA [3], in particular with the creators of KYPO Cyber Range Platform (https://crp.kypo.muni.cz) that is possibly the first full-fledged open-source cyber range platform available. As a result, the technical infrastructure was built in the premises of partners of both CCN projects and the evaluation phase has been initiated. SPARTA also started with the contribution to training scenarios, focusing on hybrid trainings that combine virtualized infrastructures with physical devices, such as Industry 4.0 devices, IoT devices, critical infrastructure equipment and smart grids.
The aim of the joint activity is to build an ecosystem of participating institutions that share the training content, provide unique technical resources to other partners and cooperate on the organization of trainings that are hosted at multiple sites but accessible remotely from trainees’ homes.
[1] https://www.sparta.eu/assets/deliverables/SPARTA-D9.1-Cybersecurity-skills-framework-PU-M12.pdf
[2] https://www.sparta.eu/assets/deliverables/SPARTA-D9.2-Curricula-descriptions-PU-M18.pdf