The platform has already been used for teaching students in several courses at the Masaryk University and also for training cybersecurity professionals.

The platform builds on several years of experience from using cyber ranges in education, training, and cyber defense exercises, including Czech technical cybersecurity exercises - the Cyber Czech, which were organized in cooperation with the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NCISA).

We want to help solve the problem of many lacking cybersecurity experts by providing a functional platform for training, development, and execution.

We believe that KYPO Cyber Range Platform is a significant contribution to the cybersecurity community.  The open-source cyber range makes hands-on cybersecurity education widely available for universities and organizations in Europe and around the world.

As a part of CONCORDIA consortium, we perceive the release of an open-source cyber range as part of CONCORDIA strategy to build the European Trusted, Secure and Resilient Ecosystem for Digital Sovereignty of Europe.

European Cybersecurity Strategy for Shaping Europe’s digital future states that we need more cybersecurity experts.

Cyber ranges are a suitable tool for education of future cybersecurity experts. Hands-on approach in cybersecurity education provides invaluable experience to learners and complements their theoretical background in cybersecurity topics.

Not all universities and organizations can afford to develop or purchase their own cyber range. In this context, the impact of the open-source cyber range can be significant for supporting cybersecurity education. Removing the high cost of most cyber range solutions enables the development of hands-on cybersecurity training, which can help close the skills gap that is getting wider every year. 

Every organization can now use a cyber range for free. They can focus on developing trainings and delivering them to their audience. 

KYPO CRP is open source under the MIT license, which means that organizations can customize the cyber range or extend it for their needs. 

To start working with KYPO Cyber Range Platform, you will need to meet hardware and software requirements.

Software requirements

• Access to the OpenStack cloud platform

• Optionally OpenID Connect provider

Hardware requirements 

If you don’t have access to the existing OpenStack platform, you will need to create an OpenStack deployment on the following hardware: 

• Evaluation/testing – a desktop or virtual machine with 2 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM, 40 GB HDD

• Production:

  • virtual machine with 2 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM, 100 GB HDD

  • single server with 16 CPU cores, 128 GB RAM, 2 TB HDD, at least two network interfaces 

Installation 

We provide Ansible playbooks or step-by-step guides for deploying all of the required components. 

You can cite two research papers to reference the KYPO CRP. In the first one, you will find details about the design and use cases of the KYPO cyber range. The second one summarizes our observations from organizing and carrying out cyber defense exercises at the KYPO cyber range platform.