A Virtual Laboratory for IT Security Education

Abstract: Success of IT security not only depends on the evolution of technolo-gies, but also relies on the knowledge of IT-Personnel and the level of their IT-se-curity education. In order to deliver IT students and professionals hands-on experi-ence of security technologies and tools by electronic means, this paper proposes the concept of a virtual laboratory and discusses its application in practical IT se-curity education. Providing security experience in traditional ways is difficult be-cause it needs dedicated test-bed networks and a lot of administrative efforts, which makes on-site training expensive. The virtual laboratory is an online security laboratory which is built with virtual machines. Virtual machines are software ap-plications which simulate real machines on a host. Equipped with rich security tools and network interfaces, those virtual machines can be assigned to us-ers as laboratory platforms. For that virtual machines are under monitoring and administration, the laboratory can be managed in a reliable way. This makes the running of a virtual laboratory on the Internet possible. Experience within the Tele-Lab “IT-Security ” project successfully proves that the concept of virtual laborato-ries effectively eliminates geographical and financial limitations in traditional IT Security education.