DoD Lightweight Individual and Group Cyber Trainer (LIGCT)

DoD’s U.S. Cyber Command’s (USCYBERCOM) Cyber Mission Force plans, directs, and synchronizes full-spectrum cyberspace operations to deter, disrupt, and defeat adversary cyber actors. The DoD Personnel and Readiness, on behalf of the Cyber Mission Force (CMF), sought a realistic, simulative and portable cyber training environment for individual and small group training, envisioned as a Lightweight Individual and Group Cyber Trainer (LIGCT).

Redhorse and Aries Security designed and built a robust, mobile, immersive training platform – a serious game – by adapting an existing, proven application to create and deliver an innovative, integrated technology solution to train the CMF. The application is based on the Aries Security’s Capture the Packet cyber training game, a favorite of the worlds best white-hat hackers the annual DefCon conference, delivered in a platform designed to deliver robust performance in a ruggedized fly-away package, enabling an on-demand realistic training environment for groups of up to 50.

This solution platform is based on a simulated network environment, emulating hundreds of thousands of network nodes across a wide spectrum of simulated hardware and software. The platform provides progressively challenging individual and team training, tracking game progress and proficiency for both individuals and teams, as well as a rehearsal mode for refresher training. Example scenarios include: enterprise network protocol, advanced persistent threat and containment, insider threat detection, LAN and WAN traffic analysis, advanced covert channel and steganography detection, misconfigured network devices, and network forensics.