Ministry of Defence Expands Cyber Preparedness with Immersive Labs

BACKGROUND

The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) works to protect people, territories, values, and interests at home and overseas to ensure national security and safeguard prosperity. The organisation is composed of personnel in the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force.

CHALLENGE

In 2016, MOD security leaders recognized they needed a comprehensive program for upskilling all branches against rapidly evolving cyber threats. Historically, their cyber training program focused solely on legacy certifications that involved sending individuals to one-off, on-site training seminars without the continuous development available to all personnel.The initial approach lacked synergy and connective tissue between trainings and was selective in its availability to personnel. Additionally, trainees often did not retain the information from these courses as it was infrequently exercised, resulting in a quantifiable loss on return of investment.

SOLUTION

Since adopting the Immersive Labs Cyber Resilience platform, the MOD has implemented monthly technical exercising for 150 participants across the organisation through a cyber range scenario.The platform provides a competitive lens, with team sim results accessible to commanding officers, enabling them to evaluate the skill levels of both team and individual performances. Immersive Labs then provides aligned skill paths with hands-on labs for individual users to upskill on any identified gaps.

OUTCOMES

Among the measurable impacts since implementation, accuracy has skyrocketed five-fold since the first exercise, with some teams reaching as high as 97% accuracy, as well as MITRE coverage of over 98%. Teams are now able to collaborate, refine skills between exercises, and gain recognition within the organisation for their knowledge, growth, and cyber expertise.These programs have assisted in transforming the Army into an adaptive modern force, capable of competing in the Digital Age and creating career pathways linked to skills over traditional stove piped career structures.