If you’ve come across the term cyber range and are wondering what it is, understand that it is a virtual environment that is utilized for training in cyber warfare and the development of cyber technology. It offers tools that help stabilize, secure and perform IT systems and cyber infrastructures that are used by military and government agencies.

Cyber ranges work like kinetic or shooting ranges, enabling hands-on cybersecurity training in operations, weapons or tactics, allowing IT professionals and cyberwarriors to build and test cyber range technologies in order to confirm consistent operations and preparation for real-world development.

Cybersecurity training can also be given through cyber simulation which is an event simulation model built for forming representative cyber attack and intrusion detection sensor alert data. While the model has been basically designed to be used in checking cyber situational analysis and awareness tools, it can also be effectively used for other applications such as in training of system analysts.

Such a model offers a user an ability to build an illustrative computer network and establish and implement a chain of cyber attacks on target machines in that network. The network has IDS sensors set in it which generate appropriate alerts according to the traffic they see within the network. The alerts generated contain a mix of the alerts created due to attack actions and due to typical “noise” (harmless traffic that activates an alert).

There are three basic types of devices in the simulated computer networks: connectors, machines, and subnets. A connector symbolizes the means through which computers are linked, like a router or a switch. A machine may indicate an individual server or computer and its characteristics can include the operating system, the IP address and the kind of IDS sensor (if any) on the machine. A subnet indicates a group of many machines with connectivity to the network that shares some common properties.

When such a computer network is created, an attack situation can be created and run on the network. Added parameters that indicate the behavior of the attacker can also be generated, including stealth, efficiency, and skill of the attack being simulated.

Benefits of Cyber Attack Training

Businesses across the world are facing a severe shortage of cybersecurity professionals. Therefore training of network security engineer is essential so that they can at least identify the basics of an attack. They get a practical experience they need to be able to see and protect against advanced security attacks in the best possible way.