Increasing high-profile cyberattacks on private industry, nonprofits and the government illustrate the need for increased skills to combat them. To this end, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory are partnering with other Department of Energy laboratories to host Cyber Fire Foundry 2022-2, the Department of Energy’s premier cybersecurity workforce engagement initiative, which begins Dec. 5 in Louisville, Kentucky.
“Cyber Fire not only trains the next generation of incident responders, but it also promotes building relationships across different national laboratories,” said Gillian Ratliff of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Advanced Research in Cyber Systems group and Cyber Fire event lead.
Cyber Fire team members, from a number of DOE laboratories, take a unique approach that helps attendees develop the ability to create innovative solutions to cybersecurity threats. This year, attendees will have three days of hands-on class instruction, guided by seasoned cybersecurity professionals. Attendees will have a variety of courses to choose from, ranging from operational technology to malware analysis.
Participants will then have the rest of the week to form teams to work together in a collaborative exercise, which has been custom crafted to provide opportunities to apply new skills and further expand on practical learning.
“This is our 21st Foundry event, and our first in-person event after COVID lockdowns,” said Neale Pickett, event lead and a member of Los Alamos’ Advanced Research in Cyber Systems group. “We are excited to provide our unique, advanced training to a new round of incident response professionals from DOE, government, private Industry and strategic international partners.”