A robust cybersecurity protection is important to most public- or private-sector actions in the USA. In 2019, Govt Order 13870 said that, “America’s cybersecurity workforce is a strategic asset that protects the American folks, the homeland, and the American lifestyle.” One end result of this government order is an effort to foster cybersecurity training by way of competitions. These occasions enable members to sort out real-world cybersecurity issues in a timed, aggressive, secure atmosphere by way of hands-on challenges that assess and construct cybersecurity expertise. Opponents join particular person or staff tracks or each to strengthen their talents and be examined by offensive or defensive challenges. A cybersecurity competitors is a perfect atmosphere for these professionals to dive into and discover lifelike situations.
The Division of Homeland Safety’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA) was tasked with holding a cybersecurity competitors for the federal cyber workforce. It selected to associate with the SEI to develop and run the President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors, a nationwide cyber competitors that identifies, acknowledges, and rewards the perfect cybersecurity expertise within the federal government workforce.
In six years greater than 8,000 folks have taken half within the President’s Cup. In that very same time span almost 4,000 help-desk tickets regarding questions with challenges/the platform/registration, and so forth., have been created to help the President’s Cup. Whereas designing high-level challenges is crucial a part of a cybersecurity competitors, having a help staff that may course of and resolve opponents’ issues in a well timed trend is a vital a part of making a cybersecurity competitors profitable. On this put up we current classes discovered from six years of internet hosting President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitions together with the need of competitors help staffing.
Assist Crew Objective and Construction
Regardless that members are competing, they nonetheless often want the help of a help staff. The aim of the help staff is to assist opponents expertise a seamless occasion. The help staff doesn’t provide hints to the people and groups once they get caught throughout a problem; it serves as an middleman between opponents and the competitors’s platform and problem engineers each time problem questions and/or platform points come up. Generally a technical challenge with a problem or the competitors atmosphere wants restore, whereas different occasions a competitor seeks readability a couple of specific a part of the problem. The help staff retains the wheels shifting.
Assist Hours and Tiers
The primary resolution when planning help for a contest is deciding when to supply stay help. Some competitions provide stay help 24/7, whereas others provide stay help for particular occasions through the rounds. Both means, it’s vital to obviously talk the hours when opponents can and can’t anticipate stay help.
The President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors is run by way of Gameboard, an open supply utility, the place customers entry the challenges and attain out to the help staff by way of the Gameboard-hosted ticketing system. Earlier than tickets begin arriving, it’s a good suggestion to interrupt the help staff into three tiers to finest triage and resolve points.
- Tier 1. Throughout the competitors, Tier 1 help workers are answerable for fielding preliminary help tickets, acknowledging motion is being taken and speaking with the opponents till the problem is resolved. The emphasis is to resolve assist requests as quickly as attainable since there are time constraints through the aggressive rounds. Some examples of Tier 1 points embrace registration questions, profile updates, and basic questions on guidelines.
- Tier 2. Generally a problem should be escalated to builders for decision. Maybe a function requires troubleshooting, or an engineer should decide if the problem is working accurately. These engineers kind the Tier 2 a part of the help staff. Another examples of Tier 2 points embrace issues with grading, digital machines that fail to launch, or clarification questions on wording in problem documentation.
- Tier 3. Tier-3 issues, akin to infrastructure outages or bugs, will be probably the most severe to deal with due to their potential severity. For instance, if digital machines for all challenges are abruptly unable to start out, your complete competitors grinds to a halt till the issue is rectified. Subsequently, infrastructure consultants should be obtainable or on name in case an pressing scenario emerges.
How do opponents attain help, and the way is an issue funneled to the right tier for decision?
Assist Workflow and Responses
Throughout the President’s Cup, customers submit help tickets by way of the Gameboard utility. The help interface mechanically captures the precise President’s Cup problem, the consumer’s PlayerID, and a help code that helps the help staff pinpoint the problem. When the Tier 1 staff receives the ticket, they triage the scenario both for decision or elevation to Tier 2. Both means, the Tier 1 group communicates with the opponents that they’ve obtained their request and can hold them knowledgeable of progress towards decision. It’s vital to quickly talk with opponents and attempt to resolve most tickets inside quarter-hour for the reason that opponents solely have a sure period of time to participate in every spherical.
Whereas inventory solutions to typical consumer questions can function a basic place to begin for support-team responses, it’s finest to method every help ticket individually in order that customers know their particular query is getting addressed. The aim is to not reply questions in a rote trend however to answer every competitor’s scenario in a passable means.
Weekend and after-hour responses current distinctive conditions. If opponents can take part throughout occasions when stay help gained’t be staffed, the unavailability of help should be communicated clearly (customers can entry the President’s Cup website 24/7 to learn the competitors’s guidelines and FAQ part, nevertheless).
Adjudication Points
Some points are uncommon sufficient (e.g., a competitor discovers an surprising approach to resolve a problem) or extreme sufficient (e.g., an infrastructure outage causes a contest delay) to require rapid or post-round adjudication.
Sometimes a consumer’s help ticket reveals an unknown downside or infrastructure challenge. If, after investigation, directors decide that an issue with the problem or different competitors infrastructure was the trigger, they could award additional time within the participant’s session or factors for solutions that the participant discovered.
Additional time is awarded to a competitor when an issue with a problem or competitors infrastructure prevented the competitor from making progress on a problem. The additional time is usually awarded in line with how a lot time directors consider the competitor misplaced because of the error.
Awarding factors as a part of an adjudication is uncommon. Factors ought to solely be awarded if directors decide that gamers submitted a solution that needs to be thought of right however was graded as incorrect by the problem. This will occur in rare circumstances when a problem inadvertently has a number of right solutions that weren’t accounted for throughout problem design, QA, and grading.
The President’s Cup Gameboard reporting options present useful knowledge to the help staff. Assist reviews summarize details about the help tickets dealt with through the competitors. They are often filtered for a particular spherical, a particular problem and/or different parameters akin to labels. Labels are tags added to particular person tickets that enable the help staff to simply determine, classify and search all tickets. Tickets will be labeled by spherical, challenge (e.g., VM-outage), or any parameter the help staff decides to make use of. As soon as tickets are tagged with labels, it’s straightforward to run reviews. Experiences enable the help staff to spotlight competitors downside areas or points that should be addressed earlier than an ensuing spherical. Experiences may function a place to begin for the planning of future competitions.
Six Classes Realized in Supporting Cybersecurity Competitions
- Perceive Your Limits. Take into account your plan for help when providing a cybersecurity competitors. If 24/7 help shall be provided, don’t promote that to potential opponents and assume you possibly can fill the help schedule later. It’s tougher than you suppose to safe staffing for each time slot, particularly in a single day. Take into account that if you happen to observe a tiered-support technique, a minimum of two folks should be scheduled for each shift. Be sure to have sufficient staff members who possess the talents and availability to deal with help assignments.
- Analyze Information. Use your help website’s reporting options throughout and after a contest to have a look at knowledge. With the President’s Cup, CISA and the SEI use Gameboard’s intensive, built-in reporting options to glean key details about competitors challenges and logistics (akin to growing help workers throughout sure hours or realizing help isn’t wanted as a lot as initially thought throughout in a single day hours). Utilizing reporting knowledge may help decide a contest’s staffing wants.
- Guarantee a powerful challenge-review course of. A robust problem testing-and-review course of as highlighted within the Designing Nice Challenges for Cybersecurity Competitors weblog put up is integral to a profitable competitors. The aim right here is to determine and repair any problem points earlier than the competitors even begins. Consider this course of as providing help earlier than help is even obligatory. Extra challenge-testing earlier than a contest ends in
- Fewer challenge-specific help tickets through the competitors,
- happier members,
- and a extra passable buyer expertise for the competitors proprietor.
One other space the place a contest website’s reporting capabilities can present helpful data is problem improvement. Examine what challenges drew probably the most help tickets. Are there frequent threads to a few of the issues highlighted within the tickets? For instance, if Safety Onion takes a very long time to start out when used within the problem atmosphere, it is likely to be useful to future opponents to spotlight that actuality within the problem documentation in order that they know the challenges that make the most of Safety Onion are working as anticipated.
- Keep an lively backup staffing plan. Have backup plans in case somebody in your help staff is unable to deal with their shift. Whether or not it’s a proper backup schedule or an on-call listing, have a plan useful for when life interferes together with your competitors.
- Have a simple communication methodology that your help staff can use. In right this moment’s work atmosphere it’s not going your help staff will bodily be in the identical room throughout aggressive rounds (particularly after enterprise hours and on weekends). Collaborative instruments akin to Mattermost and Microsoft Groups are perfect for permitting real-time communication amongst your staff members. Video-communication platforms like Zoom are additionally helpful for emergency conditions that require impromptu conferences (akin to a sudden downside together with your competitors’s cloud supplier).
- Maintain a operating support-team classes discovered listing all through the competitors that can assist you evolve your help course of for upcoming rounds and future competitions. Method any feedback or inside solutions about your help methodology by way of the eyes of your opponents and clients. Maintain the next questions in thoughts:
- How can we enhance our competitors to raised fulfill our buyer’s wants?
- How can we make our help course of higher for opponents?
It’s additionally a good suggestion to maintain “classes discovered” monitoring in thoughts not simply in your help course of however for all features of your cybersecurity competitors.
Assist Audiences – Who Advantages?
These help practices are the results of the SEI’s expertise working with CISA’s President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors. Assist technique works in tandem with problem improvement when planning a cybersecurity competitors, so support-team issues are usually not incidental to reaching the strategic aim of creating and strengthening America’s cybersecurity personnel. A help staff that’s in a position to deal with points that come up throughout a contest whereas serving as concierge to opponents satisfies three audiences: competitors members, competitors stakeholders, and those that need the USA to have a superior cybersecurity workforce.
