Since the approval of DoD Directive 8570.01 in December 2005, DoD organizations have had to scramble to identify new and better avenues for training. The directive requires the training and certification of all information assurance technicians and managers to meet DoD baseline requirements related to their jobs. This means roughly 100,000 DoD personnel require training and certification.

Unfortunately, many DoD personnel, particularly members of the armed forces, find themselves in forward-operating bases and other situations where traditional, classroom-based training is difficult if not impossible. In increasing numbers, DoD organizations are turning to CERT’s Virtual Training Environment (VTE) to bridge this training gap. VTE provides rich media instruction and hands-on training labs to remote students over the internet. It enables students to access high-quality training on security, computer forensics, and incident response anywhere in the world, with only a web browser and an internet connection.

“The power of the VTE distribution model is that it can reach students in places other training delivery methods can’t,” notes VTE team lead Jim Wrubel.

“The power of the VTE distribution model is that it can reach students in places other training delivery methods can’t,” notes VTE team lead Jim Wrubel. “Armed forces personnel have accessed VTE from forward-deployed bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they’ve even accessed VTE from ship-side deployments.” Wrubel adds that VTE’s 15-minute modules have been designed specifically to help students adapt their training to meet unpredictable schedules. What’s more, VTE training has no “expiration date”—students can access all training modules as often as they want and for as long as they want after completing training. “Because students can keep coming back to the modules and the test network,” notes Wrubel, “VTE helps close the gap between learning a concept and using that concept.” The result is more effective information security practice in the field.

VTE’s hands-on scenario networks have been a particular hit with DoD students. Accessible directly from the student’s computer, the networks enable the student to experiment, learn new skills, and practice network security and management techniques without putting live networks at risk. “Imagine,” Wrubel observes, “an Air Force firewall administrator who can’t practice his or her skills on the live network. VTE enables the administrator to practice firewall configuration and management on the scenario network, as many times as desired, right from his or her desktop.”

VTE has been well received by the DoD, and its use is growing. In the past year, VTE delivered approximately 120,000 hours of training. And not only is VTE filling the training need for DoD personnel in far flung locations, it’s doing so at considerable savings to the DoD: VTE-based training saves the DoD 84 percent per student served compared to traditional classroom delivery. Even better for the DoD, this savings comes at no cost to effectiveness. Certification rates for students accessing VTE for training are equal to those of students taking classroom training.