Abstract:
Cyber Warfare involves Cyber Soldiers on a Cyber Battlefield; so why are we not training our professionals in a cyber environment? Far too often, the training provided to Information Security professionals is nothing more than static theoretical lectures. We force our workforce to sit through drawn-out videos, or read long-winded articles, testing them on nothing more than their ability to click the ‘Next’ button numerous times.
Information Security is an interactive field, it is time to integrate interactive training into the curriculum. Cyber Exercises introduce hands-on operations, working on and with the technology that one will encounter on the Cyber Battlefield.
Talk Topics:
- Importance of Training
- Hands-on Training versus Theoretical Training
- Description of Capture the Flag Events/Cyber Exercises
- Some Details on CyberLympics and MDC3
Speaker: Justin Wray, ICF International
On a daily basis, Justin Wray works for ICF International performing Security Engineering and Planning. In addition to this role, Mr. Wray is the team captain for ICF’s Cyber Exercise group. In this position, Mr. Wray has led the team to the North American Cyberlympics Championship and has taken second place in the World Finals.
Mr. Wray has over seven years of Cyber Exercise experience and an extensive win record, including such events as the Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition, Cyber Defense Exercise, Cyber Dawn, Maryland Cyber Challenge & Conference, and the Cyberlympics.
Mr. Wray has over 10 years of combined personal and professional experience in the Information Security field. He is also an adjunct professor at the Community College of Baltimore County teaching in their Cyber Security program.
Presentation Notes:
Facts:
Cyber attacks are on the rise.
Cyber war fighters are in high demand, and the demand is sure to rise.
How do we train our cyber fighters? We spend a lot of $$ on training, but —
- Training is often an afterthought.
- Training often focuses on the theoretical.
- Is usually dull, heavy with Powerpoint slides and light of hands on experience.
- Non-interactive.
- Either too narrow or too broad.
Suggestion here is that Cyber warriors train by being involved in real cyber exercises.
After all, when a cyber attack occurs what is required is on-your-toes,
Cyber Training Types:
- Red vs. Blue
This is a game modeled after actual environment
Companies can set up the training exercises by outsourcing components.
CCDC has a college event with 8 students per team. Lasts 2.5 days. - Capture the Flag Event
Small agile teams of 6-8 members, need 4-6 teams to make the event work
This is the closest environment to the real world.
For this event, best to send teams to a location so that overall participation is large. - King of the Hill
Attackers fight through the defense, then have to defend.
This is geared to defensive training
Everyone gets experience with offense and defense
Usually companies want to use some combination of the types listed above.
An example of an event that trains Cyber Warriors (limited to inhabitants of Maryland):
Maryland Cyber Challenge and Conference
Separate ladders for professional/collegiate/high school
Phase based:
* First is defense competition, which whittles number of teams from 40 to 20.
* Second is Forensics, which reduces teams to 8. Last is offense.
A global event is the Global Cyberlympics. ICF competes in this event. 6 members are allowed. ICF arranges the team as 2 defense experts, 2 offense people, and two floaters. This is a Capture The Flag type of competition. Tools available from teamsploit.sf.net. Justin is the leader of the ICF team, which placed 1st in North America and 2nd in International.
