The Cybersecurity Polygon – the present and future of information security education

Every year, the issue of cybersecurity is becoming more and more relevant in the world. The number of cyberattacks is increasing, material and reputational damages from cyber incidents are breaking all possible records, and more and more global giants are thinking about the problems of organizing the protection of personal and business information.

IBM in its report “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023” indicates that the average cost of damages caused by a data breach in 2023 was $4.45 million, which is a record in this category. Also, the average time spent by companies to identify a leak is 207 days. In Ukraine, the State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection recorded a 62% increase in the number of cyberattacks in 2023, as mentioned in their report on cyber incidents for the past year. Verizon also states in its report that 74% of cybersecurity incidents were caused by human error.

All the given data indicates that the problem of both the training of future cybersecurity specialists and the training of ordinary citizens in information hygiene is critical and needs to be solved.

Solutions for Cybersecurity Polygons

Today, solutions for cybersecurity polygons, or as they are also called, cyber polygons, are becoming more and more popular. It is a kind of training ground that allows participants to safely learn how to conduct and defend against cyberattacks, allowing them to learn the main vectors used by attackers and how to protect themselves and their networks from these potential threats.

From a technical point of view, a cyber polygon is an isolated network or a complex of networks interconnected by network equipment such as routers, on the endpoints (computers or laptops) of which vulnerabilities are created that participants can exploit.

Most often, it is recommended to make these networks completely isolated from the Internet in order to prevent information leakage or unauthorized interference from the outside.

Working with a cyber polygon is a game process with various types of scenarios. One of the most popular scenarios is the competition between the so-called red and blue teams, that is, the attacking and defending teams, respectively. The task of the first is to exploit vulnerabilities (which the team members, of course, do not know about and must find them directly during work) specially created by the organizers, and the protection team to identify and neutralize (one of the options is blocking access) “criminals” from the opposing team. The victory of the red team is most often gaining access to the user with the highest level of rights on the network and capturing some document (file), while the victory of the blue team is to completely remove access and close the leakage points for the opposing team before the attackers can get the maximum access and target file.

Benefits of Competition

These competitions allow users of different activities and levels of knowledge to learn something new and find challenges for themselves in the field of cybersecurity and, after finishing, gain new knowledge that will help them resist threats or identify these threats and vulnerabilities in a real environment.

This idea is gaining great popularity and many private, government, and educational organizations around the world are implementing it in their education, internship, or training programs. In Ukraine, several universities can boast of such cyber polygons, in particular the Uzhhorod National University, where future cybersecurity specialists can test their knowledge and learn something new during practical classes at the training ground.

Ensuring a company’s cybersecurity is important. Cybersecurity should be a part of an application from the beginning. At Swan Software Solutions, we work to make sure our high-quality custom solutions incorporate security from the start. For more information about a custom solution or cybersecurity services, schedule a free assessment.