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KBR Stands Up Cyber Range to Create Real-World Solutions with Virtual Environments

Last fall, KBR stood up an advanced technology cyber range at its cyber lab in North Charleston, South Carolina. The cyber range can create IT and Operational Technology (OT) virtual environments that mimic an organization’s networks, systems, tools and applications. Whether testing a system’s performance in a secure environment or getting hands-on training to defend against cyberattacks, here are seven benefits users gain when utilizing KBR’s cyber range.

1. Assess and strengthen IT systems. Customers may use the cyber range to test and strengthen the security, performance and protection of their cyberinfrastructures and IT/OT systems.
2. Access the cyber range almost anywhere in the world. Because the cyber range is a controlled and virtual environment hosted on KBR’s private cloud, customers and employees can access it from virtually anywhere.
3. Transfer information from the cyber range for immediate use. Built on widely adopted technologies, using SecDevOps, a process which integrates security throughout the development and deployment processes, customers can move information directly from the virtual environment to their own network for immediate use.
4. Simulate on-the-job experience. The range is designed to imitate live, simultaneous users to mimic real-world operational situations, such as cyberattacks. Gaining hands-on training, customers can replicate performance challenges to reduce future failures and mistakes.
5. See how applications will function in live environments. KBR and a number of key customers are using the cyber range daily to test new applications and solutions for their projects. This testing allows customers to see how these items will integrate with and act within that domain. The range may help users develop concept of operations, set-up procedures and training materials, as well as assist them in determining how resilient a system is to a cyberattack.
6. Make sure products are compliant. Vendors can use the cyber range to see if their products are compliant with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Risk Management Framework (RMF) prior to introducing new technology to the federal government.
7. Speed up time to production. Using the cyber range to measure products against government standards gives vendors the opportunity to address vulnerabilities during the design phase. It may also reduce the time it takes for the government to certify that the product meets all operational requirements. Ultimately, early vulnerability testing and mitigation may speed up the time to launch.

The new cyber range will continue to evolve

KBR’s cyber range provides a secure and realistic virtual environment that meets a range of customers’ IT needs. According to Derrick Nixon, KBR Vice President of Security Solutions, Government Solutions U.S., KBR will continue to update the cyber range with the most advanced technology.

“The cyber range will continue to evolve with upcoming capability upgrades and planned development of an artificial intelligence segment and robust modeling and simulation library,” said Nixon.

As one of only a handful of companies with their own organic cyber range, complete with integrated industrial control systems and critical infrastructure protection devices, KBR is paving the way for its customers with secure, cost-effective technologies.