Glossary

Cyber Range

A cyber range is a virtual environment that companies can use for cyber warfare training and software development. These complex IT environments allow companies to practice handling specific real-world scenarios, train employees and customers on the latest threats, and they are essential for combating modern cybercrime.

Cyber ranges are being actively used by the military and government agencies, private corporations (software development and in cybersecurity), and other private entities with a focus on cybersecurity.

Why Cyber Range Training Is Important

According to the Herjavec Group, cybercrime is defined as the “greatest threat to every company in the world.” They estimate that cybercrime will have cost the world nearly $6 trillion by 2021, double the $3 trillion total in 2015.

The company noted that the majority of cybercrime includes damage and destruction of vital data, lost productivity, theft of intellectual property, stolen money, loss of sensitive financial data, fraud, embezzlement, and the disruption of normal business activities.

In 2017, credit reporting agency Equifax experienced one of the largest publicly disclosed breaches in history. This breach led to over 145 million compromised customers having their personal information and social security numbers leaked.

Now more than ever, companies must develop suitable solutions for dealing with cybersecurity threats. Cyber range training is one of the best ways for a company to prepare itself and its customers to face these threats.

Benefits of Cyber Range Solutions

With cybercrime on the rise, there’s a legitimate need for additional training to train corporations and government agencies to handle major threats as they appear.

Virtual cyber ranges offer many advantages that can help your organization prepare itself to deal with potential threats. These advantages include:

Experiencing real-world threats in a safe environment. Cyber ranges allow your employees and customers to experience real-world threats in a virtual environment. These experiments are controlled, you can determine the parameters an individual will experience, and you can repeat the experiment however many times you wish.
Learn how to recognize and handle threats. By actively training against modern threats, your employees and customers will learn how to identify potential threats, and they will know how to deal with them.
Validate your proof of concepts (POCs). Software developers can use cyber range applications to validate virtual POCs. The infinite testing possibilities make cyber ranges the perfect choice for verifying new ideas, testing market viability, and more.
Save your business time and money. Cybersecurity labs are a cost-effective approach to cybersecurity. They are easy to deploy, require less capital expenditure, and only need to be set up once.
Virtual environments are always up to date. New updates, patches, and exploits are always popping up. A virtual cyber range is always up to date and ready to help your organization test against whatever threats they want.
Keep your employees and customers trained. Your cyber range training environments are accessible from anywhere. This accessibility makes them a great option for keeping your employees and customers trained, certified, and prepared to deal with cybersecurity threats.
Scale up as you grow. On-premise labs are costly to upgrade and maintain. With a virtual environment, you only pay for the resources you need. You can upgrade your existing virtual environments whenever you want, scale them up as you grow, and futureproof your company.

How to Implement Cyber Range Technology

There are a variety of reasons why a company may look to implement their own cyber range. Cloud-based solutions tend to be more popular because of the flexibility they provide. On-premise cybersecurity labs are viable, but are a more costly option.

If your company is looking to deploy a cyber range, you will want to consider what your needs are. There are many specialized providers that offer dedicated cyber ranges, virtual IT labs, and other platforms that are capable of servicing your cybersecurity needs.