Industry guests have been given a preview of a new cyber security centre which will allow companies to train staff to combat potentially crippling attacks. The SOCLAB centre at Edinburgh Napier’s Cyber Academy will let workers get to grips with threats like ransomware, which saw NHS systems infected with malicious software last year, in a safe and isolated environment.
The Cyber Academy, based in the School of Computing, launched the security operations centre in collaboration with IT security company Satisnet in front of invited guests at the Merchiston campus.
New data protection laws coming into effect in May mean companies will have to respond swiftly to an attack, and this type of training ground will allow organisations to train their staff to cope with an incident.
The security operations centre created by the partnership will see both students and external IT workers taught to combat scenarios like ransomware, denial of service attacks, insider threats and data loss.
Guests at the launch saw a series of demonstrations, and listened to addresses by Joanna Cherry MP and Edinburgh Napier’s Principal Professor Andrea Nolan as well as representatives of Satisnet, ECS, Zonefox and Quorum
In recent years the School of Computing has developed a range of systems simulating real-life IT infrastructures to allow students to learn about advanced methods such as malware analysis, penetration testing, cryptography and incident response in a safe environment.
Professor Bill Buchanan (pictured), who leads the Cyber Academy, said: “Our dream has always been to build training infrastructures which mimic the real-life IT environment in which we can run scenarios.
“The collaboration with Satisnet underlines that we aim to use the most advanced systems and tools possible, and to train people for a wide spectrum of roles in which they can identify threats and respond to them.”
Lothian MSP Miles Briggs commented: ““In the current political climate and with recent cyber-attacks in the UK this Cyber Security Centre is more welcome than ever.
“Training people to be aware of potential cyber-attacks could be the difference between a cyber-attack happening or one being prevented.
“This is yet another excellent initiative from Edinburgh Napier University”
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