Softline organized the work of the cyber training center at NRU MPEI

2024: Creation of the Cyber Learning Centre

Softline Group of Companies (PJSC Softline) together with Promising Monitoring JSC implemented a project to create the Ampire Cyber ​ ​ Training Center for the Engineering and Economic Institute (InEI) of the National Research University MPEI (Moscow Energy Institute). The Cyber ​ ​ Training Center has been operating since February 2024. Softline announced this on May 7, 2024.

NRU "MPEI" takes an active part in the implementation of the national project "Science and Universities," is a participant in the strategic academic leadership program "Priority-2030," and also implements the program of integrated development 2019/2024. The university aims to increase its scientific and educational potential and plans to become one of the centers of scientific, technological and socio-economic development of the country. In this regard, it was decided at MPEI to modernize the process of training IT and information security specialists and to contact Softline Group of Companies for practical implementation.

The Softline team was tasked with:

• Choose a training platform for organizing classes with students of the Department of Security and Information Technologies (BIT) of MPEI.
• Arrange a cyber police room (laboratory), where it is planned to conduct current training of specialists and cyber training.

Experts of Softline Group of Companies took into account the requirements, goals and tasks of the Department of BIT of the University and proposed to build a Cyber ​ ​ Learning Center based on the Ampire software complex, as it fully met the needs of the university to organize practical training for students in the field of information security. On time, the Softline team delivered specialized software, and experts from Perspective Monitoring, the developer of the Ampire cyberpoligon, conducted a course for teachers of the department and the most "advanced" students to master the new platform, which allowed them to quickly integrate it into the educational process.

On the basis of the Ampire Cyber ​ ​ Training Center, future IT and information security specialists will master the practical skills of detecting computer attacks, investigating information security incidents and implementing protective measures, which will qualitatively increase the level of training of students of the BIT department. In addition, the university plans to use the capabilities of the Ampire cyber police for scientific purposes.

We are glad to help the university in creating a digital educational environment for conducting cyber training for future IT and information security specialists. At the Cyber ​ ​ Training Center of the National Research University "MPEI," created with the help of our team, students will be able to train in identifying and eliminating computer attacks in conditions as close as possible to real ones. The Ampire platform allows you to create a "digital twin" of the enterprise information system with modeling of infrastructure, attack scenarios, vulnerable nodes that will be affected by the intruder. The organization's infrastructure is virtual machines combined into a local network. Thus, graduates will be prepared for a wide range of tasks at the future place of work, which will significantly increase their competitiveness in the labor market. In addition, the teachers themselves will continuously improve their qualifications in the process of mastering an advanced and constantly developing software solution, "said Olga Slavinskaya, Head of Business Development at Cyberpolygon & Awareness, Softline Group of Companies.

It is important for our university to introduce promising educational technologies and teaching methods. We are confident that the new approaches to information protection and the educational process that we are introducing using the solutions of Softline Group of Companies and Promising Monitoring JSC will contribute to improving the information security of Russian organizations and, first of all, as objects of critical infrastructure, which is especially important in the constantly changing landscape of cyber threats. In classes at our Cyber ​ ​ Learning Center, students on the Ampire platform will simulate the process of a hacker attack on the enterprise infrastructure and learn to repel it. Our students will be able to master a number of practical competencies, such as: working with special software for detecting and analyzing information security events, setting up and using information protection tools, as well as investigating and neutralizing the consequences of cyber incidents. Engaged in cyber policing, future IT professionals will also gain teamwork skills and learn how to respond quickly under severe time constraints. All this will allow graduates to feel confident in their competencies in employment. Our faculty also appreciated the capabilities of Ampire and the high level of automation of templates and scenarios for organizing and conducting the class and training. In addition, we plan to use Ampire in the scientific activities of our department and institute, - said Alexander Yuryevich Nevsky, director of the Engineering and Economic Institute of NRU MPEI.