The Open Cyber Range (OCR), unlike other cyber ranges developed on the national level, is also aimed at private sector companies for the development of new technologies and testing of cyber solutions.
OCR is a platform created in cooperation between the Ministry of Defense, the CR14 foundation, TalTech and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) for conducting exercises, building digital twins, and developing and testing products and technologies, regardless of the field of activity. The project was funded by Innovation Norway within the Green ICT program.
What does the Open Cyber Range (OCR) offer?
OCR is a cyber exercise field that aims to simplify the process of creating cyber exercises as well as make it cheaper. It is possible to organize and order exercises in the usual way, i.e. by defining needs and goals in cooperation with SA CR14 staff, and conducting the exercise using OCR hardware. From June 2024, the OCR platform as a whole will also be ready - when using it, the customer can also fully design the exercise themselves, using the user interface created for this purpose and the scenario definition language (SDL).
What problems does OCR solve?
Based on experience in the field of defense and security, OCR offers cost-effective cyber training and a platform for the development of new technologies for institutions and private companies. The Cyber Security Act (KüTS) obliges a certain number of companies, including vital service providers (ETOs), to develop their readiness to respond to cyber incidents and to ensure the continuity of their services even in the event of a cyber incident. Part of this is employee training. Most of the companies covered by KüTS are small, and most of the time they don't even have an IT specialist, let alone a security specialist. As a result, the preparedness of these companies is low, and this contributes to the situation where important or vital services are disrupted in the event of cyber incidents. In the spring of 2024, SA CR14 successfully applied for the cyber security support of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications to create a collective training platform for IT specialist teams of small and medium-sized companies to solve a similar concern.
From the point of view of cyber security of the private sector, another concern is the readiness of new start-ups. Estonia is known for a strong start-up network and a supportive environment that encourages the creation of many start-ups. A large part of Estonian start-ups operate in the IT field or use IT solutions. OCR creates an opportunity for start-ups to validate their technologies, if desired and if necessary, also with the help of the capabilities of the cyber training ground.
What is the future of OCR?
OCR is open source in the Github environment. This means that the use of OCR does not require a paid license and is available to everyone on the web with documentation about OCR and instructions for using the software. In addition, the OCR solution is designed to be compatible with other popular open source software so that functionality missing from OCR can be added through other software solutions if necessary.
Read more about the OCR service here:
- Documentation: https://documentation.opencyberrange.ee
- Source code: https://github.com/Open-Cyber-Range
- OCR in the context of CR14: https://www.cr14.ee/ranges#open-cyber-range
- More information: [email protected]
