Cloud Range announced it was chosen by the Nebraska National Guard to provide a Virtual Threat Environment (VTE) with training exercises for "Cyber Tatanka," a yearly two-week flagship cybersecurity training event where civilian and military cybersecurity staff members conduct partnered cybersecurity operations to defend against cyber attacks in a controlled environment.

In June of this year, Cyber Tatanka was led by the Nebraska National Guard to unify and build partnerships within the civilian and military cyber defender communities across 12 critical infrastructure sectors to strengthen cyber capacity and resilience. Cloud Range was selected to provide the virtual cyber range training environment and exercises for the event because Cloud has specifically designed simulation exercises for cyber defense operations to build the necessary skills, methodology, and experience to detect and remediate various types of incidents or cyber attacks.

Cloud Range supported the two-week event with realistic, hands-on defensive cyber training in a safe, controlled, virtual environment. Cyber Tatanka brought cybersecurity industry leaders; the Nebraska National Guard; international military partners; federal, state, and local governments; and non-governmental organizations to work together and protect critical infrastructure from the rapidly evolving cyber threat landscape delivered through Cloud Range's cyber range. This opportunity fostered collaborative training, enhanced cyber readiness, and built partnerships among 12 sectors of critical infrastructure.

"The goal of this event is to introduce an accessible virtual training environment that serves participants globally, allowing them to improve cybersecurity capacity and preparedness through collaboration using real-life scenarios," said Ryan Carlson, the lead technical planner of Cyber Tatanka. "Through the capabilities of Cloud Range's platform and library of attack simulations, the teams worked their way through a variety of realistic scenarios to help professionals identify and address gaps in incident response. With Cloud Range's support, this year's event was the largest one yet, accommodating 194 participants. We have exceeded our own expectations in creating this vibrant community, and we are excited about continuing to grow the event next year."

Cloud Range revolutionized the training landscape by using its realistic and immersive cyber range, transforming it into a dynamic battlefield. The cloud-based platform provided a SaaS-based cyber range accessible via standard web browsers supporting all participants. The range was specifically designed for scalability and ease of access, eliminating the need for specialized software.

Additionally, participants were provided with daily customized and coordinated live-fire simulations, mapped to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, following a structured training arc that got progressively more complex throughout the week. With the ability to support many enclaves and participants simultaneously, Cloud Range ensured the event could handle anticipated growth and diverse teams.

"Regardless of the industry or priorities, cybersecurity is a collaborative endeavor. Security teams must come together and work on common cybersecurity challenges that we all face every day. The Cyber Tatanka training event manifests the spirit of collaboration and community, uniting sectors with unique perspectives, missions, and differentiations, but all with a mutual end goal of strengthening defense," said Debbie Gordon, CEO and founder of Cloud Range. "This event represents the core of our mission: to proactively train, practice, and implement security defense techniques for real-life incidents. We are proud to support such an event and provide challenging, realistic exercises that get participants working together and pushing each other to think outside the box."