International Workshop on Cyber Range Technologies and Applications (CACOE 2020)

Abstract

Cyber ranges are virtual environments (e.g., cyber-physical labs and private clouds) meant to represent real cyber environments. Analogous to a shooting range, a cyber range is a safe place to test and explore various types of cyber attacks without jeopardizing any operational systems or business processes. There are countless examples of when cyber ranges are been used to advance knowledge in cyber security and countless examples of training programs and larger exercises that have used cyber ranges to reach their learning goals. Unfortunately, setting up events in a cyber range can be difficult and error-prone. This is not strange, because it is often expected that a few cyber range engineers should both instantiate and manage cyber environments that normally require a whole IT-department and simulate realistic user activity in these environments. Nevertheless, tools to support this process is warranted. Furthermore, since the use of cyber ranges can be costly compared to alternatives, such as computer modeling and tabletop exercises, more knowledge of their utility to different types of problems is also desirable.