Developing Blockchain Learning Lab Experiments for Enhancing Cybersecurity Knowledge and Hands-On Skills in the Cloud

Developing Blockchain Learning Lab Experiments for Enhancing Cybersecurity Knowledge and Hands-On Skills in the Cloud

연구 분야: Verification

학회: International Conference on Computer Science and Education

Blockchain technology has drawn significant attention from academia and industry. Such technology offers unique features and capabilities, including security and reliability. However, there needs to be more significant integration of blockchain into cybersecurity education curricula. Hence, it is of great interest to establish novel initiatives for designing and implementing hands-on learning modules and labs based on blockchain technology to support college cybersecurity education. Furthermore, with the dramatic increase in cybersecurity students’ enrollment and hybrid courses, universities have faced many challenges, such as limited networking and computing resources, while trying to offer quality-based education. For this reason, we propose an emerging solution by leveraging a real-world testbed, such as the Global Environment for Network Innovations (GENI), a federated, heterogeneous, at-scale, programmable, and virtual infrastructure for hands-on experimentation in a broad range of computer engineering and science fields. This paper presents design methodologies for integrating blockchain technology into the GENI testbed in a cybersecurity course, with applied cryptography as an example. The presented learning modules can further be deployed in cloud-based facilities such as Cloud Lab and Chameleon. The primary design idea is to leverage blockchain technology with the GENI testbed to train students on advanced cryptographic modules, such as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and hash functions. This paper mainly focuses on educational aspects of blockchain and GENI testbed applicability to cybersecurity education, deployment challenges, and implementation design of the hands-on learning labs. Lastly, a partial analysis of students’ feedback over a couple of lab modules is also included.