Digital playground for emergencies
Cyber attacks on companies and organizations are on the rise. The criminal machinations culminate in millions of dollars in extortion money that companies pay to regain access to their systems and data. At the FHV, experts from the Digital Factory Vorarlberg simulate such attacks in order to prevent them in the future. Starting in January, there will be special training courses for SMEs.
The research centre Digital Factory Vorarlberg has built up a so-called Cyber Range in recent years. A Cyber Range is a "digital playground" for cyber attacks and cyber defense exercises. Here, the digital infrastructure of a company or organization is replicated. This includes typical servers (e.g. Windows domain controllers - one of the most important servers in many companies), client computers, network devices such as routers, firewalls, but also typical infrastructure software. With this simulated infrastructure, the research centre's experts conduct experiments and business games. Real attacks on the infrastructure are carried out with various objectives: On the one hand for training, on the other hand to develop or test new defense systems.
Understand and prevent attacks.
In training courses, participants learn how attackers work. Above all, they learn how to work with (monitoring) systems that can detect and prevent attacks. In the simulation game, participants simulate how various attacks work, manipulate or destroy target systems, and how a wide variety of measures work against these attacks. Such experiments cannot be conducted in a real company, as the risk of digital damage is far too high.
The Expert:in also uses the knowledge gained to improve organizational processes. During the simulation, they observe how communication in the company functions in a cyber emergency. Through the subsequent detailed analysis, communication and internal company processes can be improved.
The experts also use the insights gained in the simulation to improve organizational processes in the event of a cyber emergency.
The Cyber Range was originally developed by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology and set up at the FHV as part of the existing cooperation. Adaptation and set-up were made possible by two FFG-funded projects CIDOP (FFG No. 866833) and DIH-West (FFG No. 873857).
Further links
January 2022