ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Merit Network, Inc. and the Michigan Cyber Range today announced the new Merit Secure Sandbox service, a virtual environment that enables organizations and users to practice, train, and test cybersecurity techniques. Merit Secure Sandbox is designed to be an educational space, where instructors can set up their own virtual environments for cybersecurity training. It is also the ideal solution for organizations that want to test applications, web sites, or virtualized environments in a secure location that is not connected to the Internet and their own computer networks.
“Merit Secure Sandbox is an innovative way to provide education, training, and testing infrastructure to people in Michigan and around the world,” said William “Joe” Adams, vice president of research and cyber security at Merit Network.
Michigan Cyber Range Supported by the staff of the Michigan Cyber Range, Merit Secure Sandbox provides a securely partitioned space that can be made to simulate Windows or Linux computer environments. Users may build their secure sandbox from a catalog of ready-made virtual machines or supply their own virtual computer environment.
“I see organizations using Merit Secure Sandbox for integration testing, new product evaluation, cybersecurity courses, and training exercises,” Adams stated. “It is a logically isolated, unclassified network environment, so users can be confident in knowing that what they build is partitioned from other users and applications.”
Merit Secure Sandbox allows organizations to utilize the same infrastructure used by the Michigan Cyber Range for training and cybersecurity exercises. The infrastructure can be used by organizations within Michigan or across the United States, providing a secure, adaptable resource for research, cybersecurity exercises, training, software/product testing, and other applications.
The service has already been used by three higher education schools in Michigan to create virtualized computer environments for use by students. It allows institutions to provide training and test resources within a secure environment that is separate from their own computer systems.
You can learn more about Merit Secure Sandbox online.
Later this year, Merit Network and the Michigan Cyber Range are planning to offer a similar service to individuals who are interested in testing and practicing cybersecurity techniques in a secure environment. Called Personal LabSpace, individuals will be able to use Michigan Cyber Range’s resources for their own research and learning.
Upcoming Activities for the Michigan Cyber Range
The staff of the Michigan Cyber Range will be attending a few cybersecurity conferences in September and October. This month, they will attend GRRCON in Grand Rapids and DerbyCon in Louisville, Kentucky. On October 25, they will participate in the State of Michigan’s Cybersecurity Summit in Novi.
Over the coming months, the Michigan Cyber Range is offering certification courses across 14 cybersecurity disciplines, including Certified Information Systems Security Officer (CISSO) and Certified Secure Web Application Engineer (CSWAE). Courses are taught in person in Ann Arbor, Michigan, any networked classroom, or online. Organizations interested in having a class taught at their site should contact [email protected] for further details.
The NetSec Blog is featuring periodic articles about cybersecurity, written by Merit’s Joe Adams. Recent postings have included thoughts on active defense, hacking back, and printers being vulnerable to cyber attack.
About Michigan Cyber Range
The Michigan Cyber Range was developed in partnership with the State of Michigan to provide organizations with an unclassified, secure cybersecurity environment that can be used for training exercises, security applications, software testing, and educational purposes. It is hosted and facilitated by Merit Network and is sponsored by DTE Energy. The Range prepares cybersecurity professionals to detect, prevent and mitigate cyberattacks in a real-world setting, providing simulations that test the detection and reaction skills of participants in a variety of situations. The Michigan Cyber Range also offers certification courses for a number of cybersecurity disciplines, with instruction available on-site and live online. A full training schedule may be found at the Merit Michigan Cyber Range web site: www.merit.edu/cyberrange/
About Merit Network
Merit Network Inc., is a nonprofit corporation owned and governed by Michigan’s public universities. Merit owns and operates America’s longest-running regional research and education network. In 1966, Michigan’s public universities created Merit as a shared resource to help meet their common need for networking assistance. Since its formation, Merit Network has remained on the forefront of research and education networking expertise and services. Merit provides high-performance networking and IT solutions to Michigan’s public universities, colleges, K-12 organizations, libraries, state government, healthcare, and other non-profit organizations.
For more information: www.merit.edu
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