Configuring a Lab to Support Community-Based Security Audit Projects

The University of Wisconsin-Parkside cyber-security lab is designed to emphasize training in network security, with a focus on auditing. Audits require extensive security knowledge, including how to configure network equipment, analyze OS configurations, recognize hacks, and compare audit results on a variety of systems. The audits are taught using active learning labs, but implemented via community-based learning. This paper outlines the education plan and describes lab network configuration, including server and workstation implementations, and security software. Diverse operating systems, implemented with VMware, allow for students to simultaneously run, observe, and audit different types of systems. The lab is sufficiently isolated not to allow harm, but sufficiently available so that learning is not restricted, and audit tools can be polled to a customer site.