Dive Deep into Cybersecurity Training with Technology in the New Cyber Range
I recently spent a couple of days with one of our key partners, Tech Data, at the opening of the Cyber Range. A new concept to me, a Cyber Range, is a facility to be able to dive deep into cybersecurity threats, including live malware, in an isolated environment that can recreate a client’s real or proposed technology landscape. It provides an unmatched tool for training, demonstration, and evaluation in an area where there are too few talented people, thousands of solutions and, according to one study, trillions of dollars at risk. That’s “trillion” with a “t,” and that’s a lot of money to lose.
Why the Cyber Range?
Tech Data is committed to pushing the boundaries of NextGen cybersecurity solutions and enabling their Channel Partners to secure its customers from the smallest SMB company to the largest global enterprise. As a partner, we appreciate their goal to equip us with the skills necessary to design holistic cybersecurity solutions and services that will mitigate against the most advanced cyber threats in the industry.
Place value on educating people on Cybersecurity hygiene
During my time at the Cyber Range, I realized the fact I need to spend a lot more time with hacking tools if I want to be a Red Team hacker (the team trying to break the system) , but I still learned a lot. I will keep up my skills to join that elite group in the future. Of all the content, the most critical information I saw came from Marc Goodman, best known for his book Future Crimes. Marc spent decades in law enforcement and had many fascinating and terrifying stories describing the impact on society of the adoption of technology by criminals. But more importantly, he emphasized the highest value thing we can do to protect ourselves, our companies, and our country is to educate people on basic cybersecurity hygiene.
We all know we need to physically lock our door when we go to bed at night to prevent criminals from entering our houses. A surprisingly small number of people have an equivalent level of basic knowledge in preventing cybercrime. We all to need to increase our security awareness and habits in the cyberworld as well.
Could I breach a webserver, and why is that important part of Modern Operations?
As I was listening to Marc and reviewing my unsuccessful (but surprisingly far along, given my lack of experience) attempt to breach a web server during our cyber range visit, it reminded me why security is such an essential part of Modern Operations. I talk to clients all the time who are struggling to balance their needs to operate their existing technology while ensuring their innovation platforms are available, reliable, performant, and secure. They must do both, adding new processes and tools to support cloud native workloads. The people continue to be the most critical piece of all aspects of Modern Operations. Better training. Better teams and teamwork. Allowing everyone the opportunity to participate, learn and develop the skills necessary to make your company’s innovation successful is how Modern Operations works.
