Automated Deployment of Cybersecurity Labs in Cloud Computing Environments Emergent Research Forum (ERF)

Government and private sector reports continue to highlight the shortage of qualified cybersecurity professionals. Hands-on cybersecurity labs can enhance student learning and augment the gap in qualified teachers. While there is a large body of research on cybersecurity labs, it is challenging to recreate these labs due to the use of proprietary software, significant hardware requirements, or large data transfer requirements. The automated deployment of IT infrastructure allows for the easy deployment and sharing of lab environments. This research proposes a framework for the use of DevOps tools to automate the deployment of cybersecurity labs that maps to specific learning objectives. We apply design science research methods to create a proof of concept demonstration that automates the deployment of the same cybersecurity lab environment on two different cloud providers. The research provides a new framework and method to create, deploy, and share cybersecurity labs that are mapped to learning objectives.