Lab Cyber Academy: aplicação para auxiliar a criação de laboratórios de treinamento cyber range

Abstract

The current cybersecurity landscape is characterized by a constant increase in cyberattacks across all areas of computing. In this context, companies require trained and skilled professionals to protect their organizations against virtual threats. One approach to cybersecurity training is the use of Cyber Range, virtual environments where professionals can simulate and train to defend themselves against real threats. However, these training programs can come with a high financial cost. While free tools are available, such as CyRM, the configuration and execution of scenarios in these environments are often manual and complex, which can discourage new users. To overcome these challenges, the creation of a free cloud-based tool was proposed to facilitate and automate the creation of cybersecurity training scenarios. This tool also provides an easily accessible application for interaction with the CyRM training environment. The experiment was conducted at the Federal University of Ceará, at the Quixadá campus, and utilized infrastructure as code tools, such as Ansible, Docker containers, and the AWS Academy program. Students participated in the training by responding to a guided questionnaire in Moodle. The results indicated satisfaction among the participants. Additionally, a questionnaire in Google Forms was filled out to assess the feasibility of using the tool in other security-related disciplines. This training model was conducted for the first time on the campus, targeting teachers and students in the Information Security discipline. The final result of this work was the successful implementation of the Lab Cyber Academy and the validation of the solution as an effective approach to cybersecurity training.