A virtual environment for IA education

With the increased potential of a bona fide cyber terrorist attack and the possibility of a future "war in the wires", we must continue to improve the education, training, and resourcing of individuals responsible for defending our national borders-whether those borders be physical or electronic. The Information Analysis and Research (IWAR) laboratory at the United States Military Academy (USMA) has proven to be an exceptional resource for such an education for our students and faculty studying information warfare and information assurance. The lab has also been successful in motivating the need for continued education and training in this area on a much larger scope. A recent initiative, the virtual information assurance network (VIAN) allows us to provide a robust and fully configurable network for each student to administer in the pursuit of information assurance mastery-contained on a single computer! we justify why information warfare labs are necessary, describe the phenomenon that is occurring as a result of the IWAR lab, explain the current configuration, and present lessons learned that others might use in designing an information warfare laboratory.