Red vs. Blue

As I mentioned in my last post, I spent some time flying this past week. Where? Idaho Falls, ID. Aside from the over abundance of beer and wine, Idaho Falls is also home to the Idaho National Labs control system training center.

I spent three very intense days learning about cyber security and how it applies to industrial control systems (e.g. chemical plants). On the fourth day, I had the rare opportunity to take part in a "Red vs. Blue" exercise to put into use the knowledge I had acquired. Essentially, all the training participants were split into two teams: one representing a group of contractors hired to protect a company's network (blue) and one representing a group of hackers bent on stealing and otherwise destroying the blue team (red). What made the simulation so interesting was the level of authenticity weaved into it. From a fake Internet to an organization chart for the fictious company, even the smallest details were covered. What all the time and effort amounted to was a simulation in which the particpants could immerse themselves.

What does this training have to do with the topic of this blog? Everything. It was a perfect example of how technology can be used in adult education. Instead of just listening to instructors, technology was leveraged to create a "hands-on" learning environment.Malcolm Knowles would be proud.