Development of the Cyber Defence Virtual Environment at the Estonian Information Technology College The goal of this diploma thesis was to develop the cyber defence virtual learning environment at the Estonian IT College. The current study is the part of the Estonian IT College and RIA cooperation project. It addresses a development of the cyber defence learning environment and consists mainly of virtual environments. In order to use the virtual environments, the appropriate infrastructure has to be set up beforehand. The main problem with virtual learning environments is high complexity and the need to give a suitable feedback to students.
The main goals of the study are:
After analysing existing systems, the author reached a conclusion that it is not practical to implement existing solutions because they are not optimal for the target environment. In order to optimise hardware performance, the author suggests using virtualisation of the environments. The analyses showed that it is a waste of resources to have all computing power on site due to low usage of the hardware; therefore the author suggests using the cloud computing method. For the normal studying process the author suggests using a private cloud computing method and public cloud computing in the case when more computing power is needed. The author has investigated possibilities of using several virtualisation technologies and cloud computing solutions to achieve the goals set for the current study. As a conclusion, the software called Eucalyptus was chosen because it is compatible with the Amazon which is a pioneer in these areas. The additional consideration which led to selection of the Eucalyptus software was the number of companies which offer services using that software, e.g. BalticCloud.
As a result of the study, the architecture of the remote environment was formulated. The prototype was built and ran on a single computer using the private cloud software. An application was developed which can be used also by other cyber defence module sub- projects in order to access the pilot Eucalyptus cloud via the RoR applications. Additionally, the system backup and restore scripts were written and the requirements for further development were drafted.
The system developed in the current study can be reused by everyone because all components of the system are protected with GPL licences. The current study also developed a manual which provides guidance about how to carry out practical work with students.
Finally, the author would like to point out that all goals for the diploma thesis were achieved.
