IT specialists with nearly a dozen Georgia state government agencies are engaged in what’s called a “live fire” training exercise at the Georgia Cyber Center.
This is the fourth year Cyber Dawg has been held in Augusta. It creates a simulated, corporate network.
Participants are divided into three teams. Blue team represents the organization or agency working to defend the mock network. Red team represents the bad actors who launch attacks on the network. while the cyber defenders battle to stop the attack. White team assisted with monitoring and training.
“So, you have a real planning, thinking enemy going against you, just like you do out there in the real world. But in a safe environment,” said David Allen, the chief information security officer of the Georgia Technology Authority. “When you’re on your real network out there, there’s no opportunities to make mistakes. Here, you can make mistakes and learn from them and bring that to your real network back at your company or agency or whatever.”
Jonathan Race, who helped build the Cyber Range, likens this exercise to firing ranges where the military and law enforcement engage in weapons training.
“You can do stuff for the malware and research and development. So, for cyber, and that’s how we look at it, it’s a live fire environment, not just simulated. If your environment, if your network environment, if the systems that you use, if they’re connected together a certain way, we can duplicate that,” he said.
Race said Cyber Range is an ever growing, ever improving scenario to train participants how to deal with current cyber threats and anticipate newly developed future attacks.
Among the agencies represented this year are the Georgia Department of Labor, Department of Human Services, Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the Georgia Public Safety Training Center.
“It’s a good networking opportunity for us to be able to have colleagues we can call ‘Hey, have you seen this new environment I’m seeing, is this is something I should be concerned with? Have you ever seen this?’” said Jarrod Henderson with Georgia Public Safety Training Center. “It’s just a way to be able to help each other out and network and kind of be on the same team, which is what we are, state government employees.”
Allen said people have tried to create training opportunities for years, but this is unique to Georgia. The cyber center brings together the public and private sectors along with education and state employees.
“As the adversaries continue to up their game, continue to improve their technologies, whether you’re in the private sector or the public sector, you need to continue to do the same,” he said. “And that’s through investments and in technology, and more importantly, advances or investments in the workforce, which is really what this stands for. We’re investing in our workforce and their skill sets, and we’re preparing them for the future.”
Allen said they would like to continue to grow this program to offer it regionally and nationally for different participants.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a general assignment reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com
