This presentation outlines how we built the Openstack infrastructure, automated the implementation of student projects, and work with students so they treat the Capstone Projects as real-life jobs. At USD, we found that local businesses were reluctant to allow students the opportunity to evaluate, and implement security on an operational system. We developed the USD Cyber Cloud (a private cloud using OpenStack) to have an isolated sandbox that can be quickly configured to give the student (Student Groups) a fully functional business network system. In this safe environment they can perform all the required tasks to conduct a security engineering review of the client’s system, conduct Vulnerability Assessments, Penetration Testing, and based on findings, create and execute a hardening plan to make the system secure. The hardening plan is the “What”; execution of the hardening plan is the “How”. The development of an Information System Security Plan plus the other testing report builds a portfolio of achievements for the students.

We, Cybersecurity educators, understand what knowledge is needed to be successful in Cybersecurity and to foster a culture of ethical behavior. Now, we need an environment and method to allow students to execute and implement this knowledge safely risk free.