Published on 9 January 2024

Cyber Training

As a reaction to the increasing complexity of cyber security at national level, we have been tasked with the pilot project «Cyber Training @ Cyber-Defence Campus». The goal of the project is to bring together various organisations of national significance as a community and to be able to provide them with a sound cyber training offer.

Status quo

The pilot project was launched in conjunction with the National Cyber Strategy (NCS) of the Federal Council. The NCS thus essentially provides for two measures which underscore the need for cyber training:

• First measure: More specific training sessions and programmes are to be offered in Switzerland for specialists (such as critical infrastructures). An ideal environment for innovations is created by networking the players. It is aimed to further expand the exchange between higher education institutions, companies and authorities.
• Tenth measure: Concept development and implementation of cyber exercises both on a sector-specific and cross-sector basis.

The concept

Cyber training is not intended to be an individual basic training – rather, it concerns specific group exercises focusing on important interfaces (such as the interface between technology and management). These exercises are primarily aimed at cantonal and federal authorities, police units as well as critical infrastructures and will be structured in close cooperation with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). We also utilise synergies with industry as well as the Cyber Training Range of the Swiss Armed Forces.

The approach

Up to the summer of 2024, various trials will be carried out and assorted training formats tested to validate the needs of the target group, as well as to be able to create the ideal framework conditions for cyber training. In autumn 2023, we were already able to successfully carry out two technical training sessions in combination with relevant hackathons:

• Cyber Training: Practice your management skills in a cyber crisis simulation | 16. May 2024 | Zurich

  On Thursday, 16 May 2024, the ‹Cyber-Defence Campus, Cyber Crisis Simulation› took place at the Cyber-Defence Campus location in Zurich. This all-day event was attended by 20 people from critical infrastructures, police units, cantonal and federal authorities and their service providers. During the simulation, the participants were confronted with a fictitious but specific scenario: Zürich Energy Company, a fictitious energy supply company of the city of Zurich, had to deal with a cyber crisis. The participants received various events, known as injects, via emails sent by fictitious people inside and outside the organisation and by media representatives. In order to manage the crisis, the participants had to decide during the simulation which injects to respond to, create and implement a communication plan and develop a continuity plan. The feedback on the cyber training was consistently positive: the participants were able to gain valuable experience and learnt important lessons about how they can improve their internal processes. The positive feedback and lessons learned emphasise the importance of such exercises for strengthening cyber security capabilities in industry and critical infrastructures.

  More information: Communication Cyber Training

• Industrial Control Systems (ICS) | 11 to 14 September 2023 

  On the four-day ICS Training and hackathon, more than 35 cyber experts addressed the topic «Forensics and attack detection in critical infrastructures». As a result, various weak points – such as non-protected firmware or unsecured accesses in hardware – were discovered and reported to the manufacturers in the spirit of responsible disclosure.

  More information: Message ICS Hackathon

• Car security | 16 to 20 October 2023

  Almost 40 cyber experts took part in car security training and hackathons over several days and dealt with various aspects of vehicle safety. Altogether, eight vehicles were examined for points of failure – in addition to known weak points, a hitherto unknown potential Bluetooth vulnerability was also discovered, which needs to be further examined. The hackathon also served as a successful kick-off for analysing the firmware of cars using modern fuzzing methods.

The knowledge gained from this should ultimately form the basis for the further development of the «Cyber Training @ Cyber-Defence Campus» project.

The offer

Our cyber training offer covers both technical and non-technical exercises and can be split up into the following training formats:

• Technical training

  We organise between one and three multi-day technical training sessions a year on various topics at the Cyber-Defence Campus, while hackathons focusing on similar themes always take place in parallel. Here, academic and industrial partners work together in small groups with participants from higher education institutions, the Federal Administration, the Swiss Armed Forces and the private sector and deal actively with various technical problems.

• Strategic tabletop exercises

  We offer non-technical exercises in the tabletop format: These are discussion-based and scenario-based training sessions as well as sessions supported by software which focus primarily on exercising relevant interfaces, processes and reactions. The scenarios are developed and adapted individually and aligned with real cyber incidents, to make them as realistic as possible.

The agenda

The following activities are currently planned at the Cyber-Defence Campus; details on content, target group and registration procedure will be updated on an ongoing basis.

• 14. – 18.10.2024: Satellite Security Hackathon
• 03. – 07.02.2025: Technical training on the security of intelligent buildings
• 03. – 07.02.2025: Smart Buildings Hackathon

Contact

[e-mail]