CyberNEXS Cyber Security Training

The Need for Comprehensive Cyber Training

Information is a critical business asset, which depends on protection by competent system administrators experienced in real-world environments and threats. With the cyber threat increasing, we need a meaningful way to train, and certify, the level of cyber competency. A cyber-defense curriculum and live-fire trainers that quantify a student's performance are essential to the survival of our "Information Age" critical assets.

Effective cyber-defense training environment must include:

• Real-world, live training on systems that emulate the production environment
• Initial training conducted using a structured, on-site methodology; a "train the trainer" model can provide continuity for routine exercising thereafter
• Continual training capability for routine training and timely exposure to new threat scenarios as they are released
• Follow-on remote training as an option to continue the training experience
• Up-to-date scenarios to keep current with the changing threat
• Sharpening of individual cyber skills, while fostering a teamwork approach to problem solving
• A training curriculum that addresses all of the basic day-to-day practices required to administer network and system security
• Real-time, comprehensive performance feedback to reinforce successful behavior

CyberNEXS meets all of these training requirements. It provides various options for delivering training, certifications and competitions, all in a cost-effective manner.

Sales Options

CyberNEXS provides a live cyber training environment to help meet your training, certification and competition needs. CyberNEXS has been validated to the Committee on National Security Systems (CNSS) National Training Standard for System Administrators, CNSSI 4013 Advanced Level, as part of the System Administrator Security Training (SAST) curriculum.

On-Site Training and Exercising
Cyber training and exercise curriculum, which baselines security knowledge, trains to recognize and defend cyber attacks. Training culminates with the patent-pending CyberNEXS live, real-world exercise.

Remote Training and Exercising
Virtual access provides live, realistic, training, exercising and competition with real-time feedback. Remote training saves travel expenses and provides greater flexibility for routine training.

Certification
CyberNEXS automated, real-time scoring system evaluates how system administrators or security professionals respond to real-world vulnerability remediation and hacker attacks.

Licensing
Licensing is available; please contact CyberNEXS@saic.com for more information.

Competition
Rapidly configurable competition environments are tailored to individual complexity and scale. CyberNEXS competitions can support hundreds of remote contestants; offensive and capture the flag tournaments upon request.

Community Outreach

SAIC is a strong proponent of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative. This initiative seeks ways to attract and retain students in technical studies and degree programs. CyberNEXS provides a very productive way to provide training and competitions that highlight the benefits and fun associated with cyber-security disciplines. Here are some examples of our outreach projects using CyberNEXS.

Cyber Patriot I

SAIC supported the Air Force Association (AFA) and the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security (CIAS) in their first National High School Cyber Defense Competition called Cyber Patriot I. This inaugural event was conducted with eight local Orlando, Fla. high schools as a proof-of-concept to demonstrate that it was a viable and valuable learning experience for high school students. Cyber Patriot II will include over 250 schools across the country through a series of qualification rounds.

Cyber Patriot II

Cyber Patriot II games, also called the National High School Cyber Defense Competition, were conducted Feb. 19, 2010, as part of the AFA Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Eight high school teams from seven different states competed for national bragging rights, as well as the $25,000 in scholarships donated by SAIC.

The competition was a culmination of several months of qualification rounds that were conducted using SAIC's patent-pending CyberNEXS competition engine. These qualification games started with 150 high schools from around the country and were conducted via the internet, with the near-real-time scoring occurring in the CyberNEXS data center in San Diego, CA.

The third and final qualification round included 34 teams from 21 states across the country; this round determined the final eight that travelled to Orlando, Fla. in February 2010. The task was to harden (1) Windows 2000 Professional, (1) Windows 2000 Server, and (1) Red Hat 9 Linux VMware image. The eight finalists averaged 65 percent or greater in fixing each of the three targets. At the finals in Orlando, the eight finalists competed head-to-head in one large hall.

Cyber Patriot III

View the CyberPatriot III Competition Video.

San Diego Cyber Defense Challenge

The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) sponsored the "Cyber Defense Challenge," conducted in conjunction with the San Diego Chapter of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). The University of San Diego (UCSD) and SAIC teamed to bring local area high school students to the SAIC campus to experience this video game-like cyber defense training. Over the course of several Saturdays, six to eight student teams from five San Diego area high schools met to receive three hours of security training to baseline their knowledge followed by three hours of live exercise time to see how well they could harden systems and fend off computer attacks.

San Diego Mayor's Cyber Cup

Once again, the NDIA, UCSD, and SAIC teamed to produce the inaugural San Diego Mayor's Cyber Cup. For more information, please see the San Diego Mayor's Cyber Cup web site.

Certification

How do Chief Information Officers (CIOs) really know how competent their system administrators or security professionals are in dealing with real-world problems?

CIOs want to know their information technology staff can practically apply classroom knowledge, especially in a live environment where the pressures of maintaining critical skills are challenged by real-world hackers bent on denying those services.

These are four key areas in which to measure competence:

1. Maintenance of critical services.
2. Removal of vulnerabilities and hardening systems.
3. Communicating status and resource requirement.
4. Thwarting hackers and mitigating their activities.

We quantify student performance and can provide examinations at multiple levels, depending on your organization's goals. With CyberNEXS, we can test to certification standards that you set; we provide the results against your standards. Tests are administered via the Internet, so there is no travel required.

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