Corey Thuen
MS Research Presentation

"A Virtually Extensible Remotely Invokable Reconfigurable Attack-Defend Instructional Computing Laboratory."

Wednesday, June 3, 9:30 am - 11:00 am, GJ 218

The value of hands-on information assurance training has been rated very high by students with access to such labs and exercises. The unfortunate reality is that not all universities are capable of building and maintaining a hands-on attack/defend lab. The responsibility then falls on universities with such facilities to overcome this disparity. The need for inter-institutional cooperation is more important today than ever, as hands-on experience becomes necessary to properly equip tomorrow's information assurance professionals. This thesis describes the rationale, design, and implementation of a remote solution to a Virtually Extensible Remotely Invokable Reconfigurable Attack-Defend Instructional Computing Laboratory (VERI-RADICL). Two solutions are explored for extending the University of Idaho hands-oninformation assurance experience to other institutions. The first solution utilizes a remote KVM device to allow remote access to the lab while preserving a logical air-gap by only transmitting keyboard, video, and mouse data out of the lab rather than actual data packets. The second involves the use of VMWare software remote capability to allow access to the facilities. This method allows expanded functionality but involves more data transfer than simply KVM between a remote client and the on-site laboratory. Ultimately, a hybrid solution is developed and implemented to best meet the needs and requirements of an extensible, remotely accessible lab.