CybExer Set the Gold Standard for UK Cyber Security Education with New Academic Offering

@CybExerTech’s new University Cyber Range is preparing to plug the global cyber-skills jobs gap by giving students access to hyper-realistic, high-pressure security breach simulations 

CybExer Technologies has today announced that it will be providing its University Cyber Range service offering to UK higher education institutions that teach Bachelor’s, Masters and Doctoral level Information Technology and Cyber Security programmes. 

The programme, which will see UK universities given access to CybExer’s technology at a discounted price, is the first of its kind in Britain and marks an extension of CybExer’s presence in the education sector, having already partnered with universities in the US and Europe.

The technology that underpins the new University Cyber Range is supported by state-of-the-art proprietary orchestration and visualisation software that earned CybExer an Innovation Award from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in 2018. It runs engaging Capture the Flag events and live-fire exercises that have been tested internationally by students in young hackers competitions to help boost the creativity of students and enable them to experience a full-scale cyber attack in a safe, controlled environment. 

Within the simulated network, students will also learn to locate and exploit vulnerabilities on various network systems and develop the skills to help them identify, monitor and resist cyber attacks – attributes that will be essential in helping plug the current cyber skills gap, estimated to be around  3.5 million globally, and fighting the estimated $6 trillion cost in damages caused by cyber-crime in 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures.

Co-founder of Cybexer Technologies, Andrus Kivisaar explains why putting cyber ranges in Universities will prove to be well worth the return on investment:

“Cyber security is not merely a technical problem, it’s a human problem. People are the most important part of an effective cybersecurity defence strategy, and without the skills to tackle problems head-on, governments and businesses will always suffer heavy losses. At CybExer, we get calls from Universities all over the globe who understand that the world is lacking qualified cyber security professionals – promisingly, they are all hoping to be at the forefront of innovation in this space. This is why we want to support Universities to increase their role in training up young talent; we’re encouraging anyone that is interested in learning more about Cyber Ranges and what they can bring to the university environment to contact us for a free consultation or demo.”

Alo Peets, Lecturer of Distributed Systems , Institute of Computer Science, University of Tartu said: 

“The University of Tartu understands that cyber range technology is a valuable tool for any academic institution that wants to provide IT and cybersecurity education of the highest quality. COVID-19 has elevated the urgency for highly-skilled individuals in the security field, and Institute of Computer Science are expecting to see higher interest in IT related courses in the coming months and years.”

To suit different needs, any cyber range must be easily deployable, flexible and available for use across multiple platforms with different learning objectives. CybExer can provide all this and more as a partner to University of Tartu – their range can be deployed on existing hardware as well as acquired on the cloud as a service.”

CybExer has been working with Tallinn University of Technology (TUT) since 2017, utilising the institutions €300,000 research grant to further cyber security training. In October last year, CybExer Technologies also aided in the launch of the Cyber Security Academy (CSA) 2020, organized by the Prague Security Studies Institute (PSSI), a leading think tank in Central and Eastern Europe focused on national, regional and transatlantic security issues.

References

Cybersecurity Talent Crunch To Create 3.5 Million Unfilled Jobs Globally By 2021. Cybercrime Magazine (24^th October 2019)

Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025 Special Report: Cyberwarfare In The C-Suite. (13^th November 2020)