Using its Cyberwar Simulating Product, BreakingPoint will Provide Structured Training and War-Gaming Exercises to Prepare Cyber Warriors to Defend Critical Infrastructure
BreakingPoint, a provider of technology that helps test IT infrastructure to massive scales and simulate cyberwar conditions, today launched SCOUT (Simulated Cyber Operations and Unified Training), a training program designed to deliver structured coursework, hands-on cyber range exercises and war gaming to train and assess cyber warriors, helping to ensure they are able defend their critical IT infrastructures.
Everything’s big in Texas, right? At the core of the SCOUT training program is the Austin based company’s flagship product, BreakingPoint FireStorm CTM, a three-slot chassis device capable of simulating blended application traffic at levels up to 120 Gbps and the load from 90 million concurrent users making online purchases, placing phone calls, streaming movies, playing games, sending spam, spreading malware, and engaging in thousands of other scenarios.
The company says its massive performance capabilities deliver the same conditions found in the world’s largest cyber ranges, including those from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s National Cyber Range, the Department of Homeland Security’s DETER testbed and other ranges maintained by the defense industrial base.
By producing the same high stress conditions and user behavior that equipment must support in the real world, the BreakingPoint FireStorm CTM enables manufacturers and their customers to validate the resiliency — performance, security, and stability — of next-generation 100 Gbps and faster devices. The platform can simulate more than 4,500 live security attacks, more than 150 real-world applications and SSL bulk encryption to 24 Gbps with any cipher.
As the government and private enterprises face a shortage of skilled cyber security personnel, BreakingPoint wants to help create more trained cyber-warriors, and sell more of its appliances while doing so.
The SCOUT program introduces students to the fundamentals of Information Assurance, moves them through Information Operations and ultimately moves them into advanced Mission Assurance through a curriculum made up of:
• BreakingPoint SCOUT – IA: BreakingPoint SCOUT IA curriculum provides comprehensive basic, intermediate and advanced instruction in the architecture, testing, deployment, protection and maintenance of modern networks, data centers and applications.
• BreakingPoint SCOUT – IO: Upon achieving IA certification, students follow the IO path and gain exposure to the strategy, fundamental concepts, major components and methodologies of both offensive and defensive IO.
• BreakingPoint SCOUT – MA: Advanced students will progress into MA fundamentals in order to learn the skills necessary to ensure that DoD mission-essential functions continue under all circumstances. This includes mastering MA fundamentals, mission assessment methodology, situational awareness and mission correlation, and continuity of operations planning.
“Network security is often viewed as a dark art or voodoo, something that can only be done by a select few experts,” said Victor Fernandez, BreakingPoint director of training. “The truth is, when it comes to cyber security, there is no substitute for experience. Proper training, through engaging in simulated cyber war conditions, develops the instincts and skills needed to recognize and react properly to attacks. This requires massive-scale war gaming and placing personnel in the middle of a firestorm.”
