Project Xander: Hands-On Skills for Cybersecurity

The value of hands-on lab experiences has long been recognized in cybersecurity education. Additionally, the more the labs mirror what the students will experience when they enter the workforce the more valuable the labs will be for them and for their future employers. One such experience a number of universities have tried is to have students conduct cybersecurity assessments on local organizations. The problem many quickly run into is a lack of ability for the instructor to mentor teams as class sizes increase. Project Xander, begun at The University of Texas at San Antonio has addressed this problem allowing for hands-on experiences for classes in excess of 100 students. The approach has also resulted in a multi-semester program that includes risk management, security audits, and penetration testing experiences for students in a series of courses. An additional benefit is the improvement of security in local organizations that do not have the resources to contract with vendors to provide cybersecurity services. The program is a joint project between UTSA and the MITRE corporation and can be duplicated at any college or university who wants to become part of Project Xander.