Training tomorrow’s workforce in cyber security skills and roles is a critical focus for the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC).
When COVID-19 lockdowns began, the Ottawa-based non-profit needed a better way to deliver virtual and realistic cyber security learning. After evaluating webbased training solutions, ICTC chose Field Effect’s Cyber Range® training and simulation platform.
To prepare Canada for the challenges of the digital economy, ICTC conducts research and develops solutions to help Canadians take advantage of the fast-evolving future.
Through initiatives like CyberDays and CyberTitan, ICTC provides hands-on cyber security training and competitions that help K-12 students learn cyber security skills, roles, and requirements.
According to Steve Abouldahab, Digital Skills Education Lead, ICTC’s challenge was deploying its virtual training programs effectively without requiring a lot of time from teachers and IT teams.
With coordination between teachers and IT, a single CyberDays event could take up to five hours to set up. While in-session, many times the training images wouldn’t load properly, causing more delays or interruptions.
Steve needed a web-based training solution that was easy to manage and could deliver the realism to elevate ICTC’s training programs.
Steve chose Field Effect’s Cyber Range platform and the difference was dramatic. “Now students can log in from home, get started right away, and pick up anywhere they left off without obstacles. If they accidentally delete a key file, you can reset the starting stage with just a click without going back to square one,” says Steve.
He was also impressed by the ability to reuse, repeat, and retrain. When ICTC ran into issues in the past, the team would have to start again, download the virtual private network, initialize the virtualization, and more.
Now Steve can advance the training experience, adding challenge to the scenarios as well as tracking and evaluating results.