'Cyber Ranges' Improve Corporate Security

Accenture has recently started some practice ranges in which companies can test how they respond to cyber-attacks. These new "cyber ranges" are focused on helping industrial companies in the oil and gas, chemicals, utilities, and manufacturing industries to improve their cybersecurity.

What are Cyber-Ranges

A cyber range is a virtual environment that is used for cyberwarfare training and cyber technology development. It provides tools that help strengthen the stability, security and performance of cyberinfrastructures and IT systems used by government and military agencies.

Cyber ranges function like shooting or kinetic ranges, facilitating training in weapons, operations or tactics. Thus, cyber warriors and IT professionals employed by various agencies train, develop and test cyber range technologies to ensure consistent operations and readiness for real world deployment.

Accenture’s Ranges

Each site is a controlled, interactive, and hyper-realistic environment for cybersecurity training and software development used to assess network and other technical vulnerabilities of industrial control systems (ICS).

Such systems are commonly used to automate processes in critical infrastructure industries, such as utilities, petrochemicals, oil and gas, and industrial manufacturing.

One of the ranges, sited inside Accenture's Industry X.0 Innovation Center in Essen, Germany, is dedicated to the utilities and chemicals industries, with a particular focus on electric distribution networks and chemical plants.

The other two ranges have been established on American soil. The first, located in Accenture’s Cyber Fusion Center in Washington, DC, is aimed specifically at helping companies in the utilities industry learn how to protect themselves from threat actors. The second US cybersecurity testing facility has been opened up inside one of Accenture's innovation hubs in Houston, Texas. Named the Industrial Control Systems (ICS) Cyber Range, this site is intended to support leading oil and gas companies in their cybersecurity efforts.

Early next year, Accenture will open its first ICS Cyber Fusion Center, also in Houston, Texas. The center, which is currently under construction, is being created with the intention to help the company's clients protect their industrial networks and plants assets better.

"The energy industry has the largest installed base of industrial control systems around the world, and the cyber risk has never been greater," Luis Luque, ICS cybersecurity global lead at Accenture Security tol Infosecurity Magzine,

Accenture:       Infosecurity Magazine:      Techopedia:  

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