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Educating the minds of today for the work of tomorrow. This is the purpose of CyberX – Mind4Future, an advanced experiential cybersecurity training project organised by Cyber 4.0, the highly specialised national cybersecurity skills centre, in partnership with Leonardo. The initiative is for students in the universities participating in Cyber 4.0 (Rome’s Sapienza, Tor Vergata, Roma Tre, and LUISS Guido Carli, Biomedical Campus, the University of Tuscia, the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, and the University of L’Aquila) enrolled in the final year of three-year degree programmes and master’s degree programmes in information technology, industrial and information engineering, and degrees in Mathematics, Physics, Data Science, Management & Computer Science. The project aligns with Leonardo’s strategy of strengthening partnerships within the educational system as a critical element for developing skills, recruiting talents, and creating and maintaining a constantly evolving innovation ecosystem.
The project timeline
The call for participation in the project was issued on 19 December 2022, and candidacies may be submitted until 25 January 2023 by filling in the form at: https://bit.ly/3iWQyzx.
In February, advanced training sessions will take place in various universities focusing on multiple issues, including encryption, computer network security, binary code analysis, and system and network security.
This will be followed in March by two CyberX - Mind4Future events leveraging immersive training: a competition in capture the flag style, in which students will be asked to solve an increasingly complex series of cybersecurity challenges, and practical training on Leonardo’s proprietary ‘Cyber Range’ platform. This platform permits the execution of attack and defence drills in a simulated environment and provides realistic reproductions of complex cyber-physical systems.
The training programme will conclude with an awards ceremony in April, awarding ten scholarships to the most deserving participants.
Making the most of human capital: an innovative teaching model
The training project adopts a teaching model combining conventional classroom instruction with laboratory and gaming activities to create an immersive experiential programme using platforms intended to train top cybersecurity professionals. Using these tools will improve hard security skills and promote cross-cutting soft skills, helping participants improve their ability to communicate, work as a team, settle conflicts and make decisions following a process of collective discussion.