To stay up with the evolving techniques of threat actors, cybersecurity experts must constantly up skill in order to defend against the never-ending stream of threats. Conducting interactive, hands-on, exercises with real IT infrastructure, attack scenarios and tools is one of the best methods to gain cybersecurity readiness.
Organizations can conduct real, hands-on exercises in a controlled, secure, and isolated environment from all development and production infrastructures, thereby ensuring that users of the emulated network or the ‘cyber-range’ do not compromise working networks, systems, or company data.
A cyber readiness platform can be wholly hardware-based, centred on a server or cluster of servers, and may require client-side software installation. However, because it is harder to scale and more expensive than cloud-based, flexible virtualization solutions, this traditional approach is quickly becoming obsolete.
A simulated enterprise network with routers, servers, endpoints, databases, and internal and external traffic is characteristic of an advanced skills development and preparation platform. Users can learn new tools, test several configurations of these tools, and analyse and respond to real-world threats in this closed world.
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Gamification is used in the most sophisticated environments. This increases user engagement while also increasing knowledge absorption and retention.
Finally, cyber readiness environments frequently include a number of monitoring and metrics tools that enable security administrators to track and evaluate users’ progress over time.
Advantages of Cyber Readiness Training
A robust and adaptable environment brings multiple benefits to individuals and teams, and to the company as a whole.
Individually, security professionals can enhance their abilities, obtain certifications, and increase their chances of promotion and career advancement both within and outside their current business.
Teams, too, reap the benefits. Blue and red teams can, predictably, utilize a cyber-readiness environment to improve their current processes, but they can also use it to think outside the box – to see both sides of the threat. Pen testers and defenders can become more well-rounded professionals as a result, better able to assess and prevent attacks in real time, as well as devise new and innovative plans and techniques for defending the company.
Meanwhile, security executives gain from better-trained and educated employees, many of whom are cross-trained, as well as the knowledge that their security controls and policies are effectively understood and enforced.
Also Read: Cyber Resiliency: Data Security and Business Continuity
The Key Factors of a Cyber Readiness Environment
- Is a private or public cloud better? – A private cloud is cost effective since it can be built with one or two repurposed servers and open source tools. However, the expertise and time required to manage such an ecosystem are disadvantages.
It is easy and scalable to host the environment in the public cloud. Another significant benefit is that public clouds typically include built-in tenant segregation. Plus, because it’s a pay-as-you-go arrangement, there’s little upfront cost. The most significant downside is that costs can quickly escalate.
- Issues with Licensing – While the majority of open source tools are free, some do have licensing restrictions. Licensing issues emerge for most businesses when they seek to employ licensed vendor items in a non-production or non-development environment. The answer is usually found in the business contract.
- Maintenance – Maintenance should be kept to a minimum whenever possible. The easiest approach to do this is to plan the connectivity and usage of the cyber readiness environment from the start. Basic considerations include how to get complex and simple data into and out of the environment, as well as how to extract machine images, log files, memory images, and crash files.
- Documentation is essential – One can never have too much documentation – it is critical to have a repository of documents that records scripts and actions and provides insights into them, regardless of the environment. Every product should include a snapshot and reset feature so that consumers can always revert to a known good state after doing malware investigation.
- Future-proofing – Automated provisioning and deployment solutions have evolved significantly in recent years and offer the possibility of redefining emulation capabilities – they can be implemented to future-proof an organization’s investment in a cyber-readiness environment.
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