Box Hill Institute’s Cyber Range Lab Arms Students with Industry-Ready Security Skills

Box Hill Institute’s Cyber Range Lab Arms Students with Industry-Ready Security Skills

Cyberthreats are far from static. Millions surface each year, and the number will only increase with the proliferation of Internet of Things devices. These threats come in various forms, from malware and phishing to the more grievous ransomware, distributed denial-ofservice (DDoS) attacks, and data breaches. Cybercrimes can cost victims trillions of dollars a year and have the potential to paralyze a system, a city, and even an entire nation. They have become more potent with zero-day attacks and advanced persistent threats (APTs), which, as the name implies, maintain persistence in an infiltrated network. It’s no wonder corporations and governments are more than a little anxious about fortifying cybersecurity.

The Key Issue: Lack of a Skilled Workforce

In recent years, digital transformation has been booming across industries in Australia, from farming and agriculture to transportation and mining. With every “thing” connected to the internet, there is a risk of exposing data and devices to hackers and cybercriminals. The country has to be prepared, not only with the necessary infrastructure, tools, and standards compliance, but also with a ready workforce of cybersecurity professionals. Not having trained personnel to update security and threat databases and signatures or to review security policies regularly can open doors to DDoS, malware, or backdoor attacks.

Organizations from government to defense are demanding cybersecurity professionals who can hit the ground running. However, not all colleges offer cybersecurity courses and practical labs capable of training students in an internet-scale simulation environment. This has led to a deficit of cybersecurity professionals who can effectively handle cyberattacks head-on.

The Solution: Preparing Elite Cyberwarriors

Box Hill Institute is a leading provider of technical and further education (TAFE) courses in Australia. In answering the call, it partnered with Keysight to develop a comprehensive cybersecurity curriculum and lab environment (Figure 1). The state-of-the-art cyber range lab consists of tools and assets used in actual security and network operations centers. Those tools include next-generation firewalls, security information and event management software, incident management tools, forensics tools, threat intelligence, and — at the heart of it all — Keysight’s BreakingPoint.

The cyber range environment is customizable to simulate the production and real-time environment of any organization. By duplicating the critical components of customer networks, teams in the organization experience real-world cybersecurity training on actual devices and topology relevant to the company. Students practice managing and preparing for cyberattacks and threats, even unforeseen ones, owing to BreakingPoint’s ability to simulate new attack profiles in seconds.

The Keysight Application and Threat Intelligence (ATI) database refreshes the cyber range environment with the latest threats, including daily malware updates. This diligence ensures that students are always prepared to tackle evolving network scenarios.

The Results: Skills That Transfer to the Real World

The comprehensive curriculum provides students with authentic, real-world lessons, whatever their level of expertise. It meets the requirements of enterprises, banks, service providers, and other companies. Students gain industry-valued skills, such as ethical hacking, intrusion detection and prevention, and cloud infrastructure, using industryleading tools and methodologies. Graduates are well-prepared for a career in information and security management. They can identify and plug gaps in IT security, especially in the area of network resiliency.

Going Forward

Keysight continues to work closely with Box Hill Institute to add components and tools to keep the lab updated and ensure that students work with multiple industry-relevant tools. The goals are unchanging: to provide valuable hands-on learning experiences that match real-world scenarios and produce the industry-ready graduates that corporations all over the world urgently need.