Workforce Development

CyberForce Competition™ 

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), capitalizing on the expertise of laboratory staff who have led cyber competitions, hosts interactive, scenario- based competitions to give teams a hands- on cybersecurity experience and raise awareness of the nexus between critical infrastructure and cybersecurity. The CyberForce Competition™ is open to collegiate and job seeking individuals who wish to test their acumen on various computer science and cyber-related topics, which map to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Framework’s specific knowledge, skills, and abilities. 

A typical CyberForce Competition™ has a blue team (defenders) that protects a network infrastructure from the red team (attackers). The blue team is responsible for securing and hardening their competition infrastructure, while making it available for the green team (simulating the end users). The red team consists of industry professionals that work to cause cyber destruction to the blue teams’ network infrastructure. The blue team is also responsible for protecting their industrial control system (ICS) (often with outdated software that cannot be patched) from the red team. Participants need to come up with innovative ways to protect their ICS and their system architecture while system administrators build vulnerabilities into participant’s architecture. 

Cyber Trainings

Argonne cybersecurity experts conduct a five-day cyber training, where attendees learn about the basics of computer networking, protocols, architecture, vulnerabilities, and how cyber attacks utilize vulnerabilities to gain unlawful access to sensitive systems. While the course will provide technical basics on cyber threats, vulnerabilities, exploitation, and investigative tactics, it will also focus on how to utilize the tools and skills taught in the training towards the development of analytic products. The cyber course will help equip analysts with the basic understanding of these concepts so they can more effectively execute Critical Operational Capability (COC) 2: Analyze, which focuses on the ability of analysts to assess local implications of national level threat information. By better understanding the technical basics associated with cyber issues, analysts will be better enabled to develop products and share information with their stakeholders and discuss potential impacts to or vulnerabilities within their respective area of responsibility.

CyberFire 

CyberFire is a multi-laboratory, DOE sponsored program with a focus on growing the incident response and forensics skills of both current and next-generation cybersecurity professionals. CyberFire focuses on developing fundamental skills instead of teaching specific tools and recipes for defense. The Strategic Security Sciences cyber team has developed the information sharing skills of CyberFire students, organized collegiate and K-12 events with local schools, and hosted DOE cyber professionals exercising their skills and capabilities.