World-class Cyber Security Training Centre at TAFE Queensland

The incredible digital skills training facilities provide critical equipment and training to upskill tomorrow's cyber security and digital specialists.

Cyber security students train using a Lego City simulation, getting insights and experience to both sides of an attack as close to real life as possible.

The city, made with over 25,000 bricks, is fully powered and split into four main grids with transport and emergency services, businesses and other critical infrastructure - all vulnerable to attack.

Students split into two teams, a red attacking team and a blue defending team, who monitor the city's assets and stop the red team's system breaches, which includes hacking into each grid to find vulnerabilities to exploit.

While the attackers work to disrupt each grid to shut down power or transport, the defenders work to prevent the city from crashing emulating an online attack.

By splitting students into attack and defence, students understand both sides of an attack in a high-pressure environment, sharpening their cyber security skills to graduate job-ready.

Attacking and defending the Lego city shows how far-stretching a cyber-attack can be and provides students with the real-world experience of planning and reacting to cyber-attacks.

The exercise helps students build their skills and technical knowledge through a real-world simulated attack on critical infrastructure and networks that's otherwise impossible to replicate.

Like actual cyber-attacks, every action the attacking team takes has the potential impact on the moving parts of the Lego city, which can be physically seen.

On the other side of the table are the defenders who will work to prevent disruption to each facility in the town.

A successful attack results in the Lego trains, planes or ships stopping or crashing, city lights turning off, or buildings catching fire, indicated by red LEDs.

As part of the game, we'll have a logging system that alerts us each time a challenge is completed. Students will then review these logs to learn how successful or unsuccessful each attack and defence tactic was.

As cyber-attacks become more sophisticated, it's common for today's systems to become outdated and vulnerable to attack. Businesses and organisations need to constantly improve their security and prepare for potential cyber-attacks with professionals who are skilled, prepared and ready to defend.

The training offered at our Cyber Security Training Operations Centre plays a crucial role in our students' learning, ensuring they graduate with a theoretical and practical understanding of cyber security and are prepared for tomorrow's warfare.