Labtainer Framework Extensions: Final Report
Abstract
Educational institutions are experiencing increasing demand for courses in computer and network security. Yet faculty members struggle to prepare new classes and compelling laboratory exercises, and must attempt to provide experiential learning to growing numbers of students. Meaningful laboratory activities are difficult to create and assess. However, laboratory exercises in which students learn fundamental concepts through exploration can help attract students, and ultimately into the cybersecurity workforce. The Labtainer Framework for cybersecurity lab exercises was developed under NSF grant DUE-1438893. These fully packaged Linux-based cybersecurity labs run entirely within a modestly provisioned laptop computer. Labtainers currently offer: Automatically provisioned, consistent execution environments on diverse Linux distributions, Multi-component network topologies without running multiple virtual machines, Individualized labs to discourage the sharing of solutions and support reusability by instructors, Automated assessment of student progress and Over 45 labs covering topics ranging from software vulnerabilities, networking, cryptography, web security, system security and operations, and industrial control system security. Labtainers are currently used by instructors worldwide to enhance cybersecurity education for their students. Each individual download enables the student to perform all existing Labtainer exercises as well as new Labtainer exercises introduced in the future.Labtainers has been well received by instructors from a range of educational institutions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2019
- Accession Number
- AD1087298
Entities
People
- Cynthia E. Irvine
- Michael F. Thompson
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School