Award Abstract # 0716753
CT-ER: A Framework for Live Security Exercises and Challenges

NSF Org: CNS
Division Of Computer and Network Systems
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA
Initial Amendment Date: August 27, 2007
Latest Amendment Date: August 27, 2007
Award Number: 0716753
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Jeremy Epstein
CNS
 Division Of Computer and Network Systems
CSE
 Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering
Start Date: October 1, 2007
End Date: September 30, 2011 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $200,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $200,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2007 = $200,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Giovanni Vigna (Principal Investigator)
    vigna@cs.ucsb.edu
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of California-Santa Barbara
3227 CHEADLE HALL
SANTA BARBARA
CA  US  93106-0001
(805)893-4188
Sponsor Congressional District: 24
Primary Place of Performance: University of California-Santa Barbara
3227 CHEADLE HALL
SANTA BARBARA
CA  US  93106-0001
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
24
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): G9QBQDH39DF4
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Special Projects - CNS,
ITR-CYBERTRUST
Primary Program Source: app-0107 
Program Reference Code(s): HPCC, 9218
Program Element Code(s): 171400, 745600
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.070

ABSTRACT

Computer security is a critical issue that affects our everyday life. For this reason, most colleges and other educational institutions are devoting an increasing amount of resources to develop courses and curricula that involve security training. Typical courses include cryptography, general computer security, network security, and specialized topics, such as security of wireless networks and web security.

Unfortunately, very few hands-on security courses are offered because of the additional difficulties of teaching practical security, which requires substantial extra effort on the part of both the instructor and the educational institution hosting the course. In particular, live exercises require a substantial amount of resources to prepare and execute.

This research will develop a framework for the creation and execution of live security exercises. The framework will reduce the time and effort needed to organize live exercises, and, in addition, it will make these exercises repeatable.

The framework will allow other Universities and educational institutions to take advantage of live exercises to provide hands-on security training to students. The framework will be usable in the context of a single course whose focus in on security, or could be use to support large-scale, multi-institution competitions. As a result, the framework will provide a novel tool for supporting the development of security skills of both undergraduate and graduate students.

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