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TELECOM Nancy acquires an Airbus cyber range and becomes one of the most polyvalent academic cybersecurity training platforms in Europe
October 2023 by Marc Jacob
TELECOM Nancy continues to ramp up its technological equipment for its cybersecurity engineering training with the integration of a new professional cyber range designed by Airbus Defense and Space Cyber. With this partnership, it is building one of the most polyvalent academic cybersecurity training platforms in Europe.
Outstanding equipment for cybersecurity training
Already cited as a reference academic platform in the international work: “Introduction to the Cyber-Ranges” (Chappman & Hall / CRC Press, New York, USA, 2022), TELECOM Nancy continues the development of its cybersecurity training platform with the acquisition of a new cyber range from Airbus Defense and Space Cyber, which completes the Diateam cyber-range (Thalès partner) acquired in 2019. This ramp-up of its facilities accompanies the implementation for the start of the 2024 school year of its new cybersecurity specialized engineering diploma through the FISEA format (Initial Training under Student then Apprentice Status), unique in France.
With an impressive RAM memory of nearly 2 TB, the equivalent of around 150 personal computers, this powerful educational platform is divided into three rooms: a red team (offensive) room, a blue team (defensive) room and a server room now integrating two professional-level cyber ranges and a data center.
It makes it possible to build, deploy and experiment with realistic IT infrastructures (corporate networks, industrial networks, Internet of Things) from which different attack and defense scenarios are simulated and analyzed.
It has already raised awareness or trained several thousand people and corresponds to an investment of more than 350,000 euros. The platform benefits from financial support from the Grand Est Region as part of the PACTE Grandes Écoles projects.
Added to this cutting-edge equipment is the expertise and mobilization of the school’s IT and teaching teams to bring the platform to life and evolve on a daily basis. The latter also constitutes a formidable lever to bring together teaching activities within TELECOM Nancy, including in areas other than cybersecurity.
The Airbus Defense and Space Cyber range: new building block of an ultra-polyvalent professional platform
TELECOM Nancy’s equipment for cybersecurity training is constantly evolving:
• 2017: building of the school’s cybersecurity platform with offensive/defensive rooms
• 2019: acquisition of a first professional cyber range designed by Diateam (Thales partner)
• 2021: increase in platform capacity and addition of a data center
• 2023: integration of a second professional cyber range designed by Airbus Defense and Space Cyber
Prof. Rémi Badonnel, teacher responsible for the Cybersecurity center at TELECOM Nancy and researcher at Loria / Inria Nancy Grand Est, explains:
“With the acquisition of a new cyber range, TELECOM Nancy is building one of the most polyvalent academic cyber training platforms in Europe. The integration of cutting-edge cyber ranges based on complementary technologies makes it possible to increase the capacities, the inroperability and the usages of this flight simulator for cyber space.
In addition to our students, our cyber center welcomes students from other curricula: BUT Cybersecurity from IUT Nancy Brabois for example or other engineering schools from the University of Lorraine but also industrial and institutional partners such as the cyber reserve of the Ministry of the Armed Forces, research laboratories or even European networks of excellence of which the school is a member. Users benefit from truly exceptional resources here!”
With the integration of the Airbus Defense and Space Cyber cyber range, cyber training and experiments (eg fault finding) carried out at TELECOM Nancy will further develop thanks to the orchestration of new, even more sophisticated attacks, the building of increasingly complex topologies and a more efficient automating monitoring of learner progresses.
The Airbus group and TELECOM Nancy, long-standing partners
TELECOM Nancy chose the Airbus Defense and Space Cyber cyber range because of its performance and its complementarity with the cyber range already integrated into its platform.
It also chose a tool developed by a partner company for more than 20 years and in the development of which some of its graduate engineers working at Airbus participated.
Whether through forums, end-of-study internships, apprenticeship contracts, hiring engineers or participation in national or European projects, the school and the company collaborate on numerous areas of excellence of TELECOM Nancy: cybersecurity, data sciences, embedded systems, industry 4.0, etc.
Cybersecurity at TELECOM Nancy
For more than 10 years, TELECOM Nancy has acquired a growing influence in the field of cybersecurity: diversified engineering careers (student; apprentice; student then apprentice; professionalization contract); reference academic platform; international MOOCs; participation in European networks; industrial and institutional partners; performance of its students in challenges; organization and participation in numerous cyber events (Capture The Flag, cyber war games, hackathons, escape games); awareness, etc.
With this new cyber range and the upcoming opening of its FISEA cybersecurity engineering diploma, TELECOM Nancy is strengthening its position as a major player in cybersecurity training and responding, on its scale, to the crucial need for cybersecurity experts in a context of global shortage of cyber skills and increasing threats.
