CCNA Cyber Ops Skills

Challenge Game
Cisco Networking Academy
November 2018 IPD Week

Martin Benson Jose Esquivel Telethia Willis

Curriculum & Technical Curriculum &
Assessment Manager, LATAM Assessment
Engineering Engineering
The CyberOps Skills Challenge Game is brought to you by the Networking
Academy Learn Engineering Team…

“We’ve been
experimenting
with new learning
features!”

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rights reserved. UseConfidential
Cisco Only. 2
Learn Engineering New Features
Adding New Security Courses Decreasing Assessment Exposure
CCNA CyberOps (updated) Piloting Dynamic Exam Forms and Secured Exam
IoT Security (in progress) Activation.

Exploring Gamification Promoting Career and Cert Resources

Working on new ways to add games and game-like Added Career Resources and Certification Resources
features to the curriculum and assessment tools. pages to Instructor and Student Resources pages in
The goal is to further increase learner engagement. all cert-aligned courses.

Increasing Learner Engagement Continuous Improvement

Responding to UserVoice and HD enhancement
Moving toward less text and more active learning
requests. No more Flash or FIBs in assessments,
opportunities and active content, such as videos,
Course Index scrolls faster, Increased the number
interactive activities, testlets and games.
of attempts available for Self-Enrolled Courses.
(CyberOps, I2IoT and IoT Security)
Adding accessibility updates constantly.
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Talent from the Networking Academy
Logan Bateman, a Networking Academy Student
Co-Developer for the Cyber Ops Skills Challenge

A portion of the gaming framework, the task

scoring engine, was initially developed by a
Networking Academy Student, Logan Bateman.

Logan worked with our team to further develop the

scoring engine and the rest of the game.

“During my experience working, I would say that I have

learned a lot. I now understand better how the software
industry works (Agile, sprints, story points). Also, I have
discovered new areas for personal improvement in my work
(Can't ever have enough documentation).”
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About the game…

• You have asked for games. Your students have asked for
games…
• This is a race-type game. Students answer as many
question as possible to get points before the game is over.
• Consists of multiple choice questions on a range of Cyber
Ops subjects
• Also includes Linux tasks that are performed in a shell.
• Extensible content
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About the game…
• Supports teams and individual players
• Can be played asynchronously if it is run on an Internet-facing
server
• Game session = scheduled game created for a scenario
• Scenario = a collection of questions and tasks that can be
scheduled in a session.
• Runs in VirtualBox VMs

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Resources
• Curriculum module: student-accessible resources
• Student guide
• Client OVA

• Instructor resources page:

• Instructor guide
• Student guide
• Server OVA
• Client OVA

https://www.netacad.com/group/resources/ccna-cyberops/1.1
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Example Topology
• DHCP or static addressing
Internet/campus • Internet access for research

VM
VM
game
DHCP administrator
VM (game client
student VM)
game client
VMs VM
VM

game
VM server

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Client-Server Architecture
• Two VirtualBox VMs - OVAs contain game s/w environment
• Client VM
• Game play
• Scoring Dashboard
• Instructor Admin
• Authoring
• Server VM
• Houses game scenarios and sessions
• Pushes scenario to clients at game time
• Run and forget - no need for user-configuration. May need to logon to it to discover server IP
address

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System Requirements
• Client:
• 1.8 GB download
• 4.73 GB on disc
• 2 GB RAM
• Server:
• 800 MB download
• 2.4 GB on disk
• 2 GB RAM
• 2 Cores (optional)

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Instructor Tasks via Admin Account
• Student and team registration (mostly can be done by individual
students).
• Teams must be created by instructor, students can join.
• Session creation.
• Start game manually.
• Confirm student readiness
(presence in session lobby).

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Student Tasks
• Connect Client VM game interface to server IP address
• Create gamer account
• Join team, if required.
• Enter game session
• Play

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Questions Question Categories
• Application Control
• Types • Attacks
• CIA
• Multiple choice • Compliance
• True/False • Cryptography
• CVSS
• Blank fill • Cyber Kill Chain
• Digital Forensics
• 46 questions, 10 tasks • Malware
• Management
• One attempt • Networking
• Security Concepts
• Question removed from list after • Security Data
• Security Onion
attempt Threat Actors
• Threat Intelligence
• No feedback • Tools
• Wireshark

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Tasks
• Tasks
• Linux file management operations
• Install and update packages, determine package version

• Examples:
• Open a terminal and install traceroute.
• Open a terminal and add the file /fakehome/analyst/answer.
• Open a terminal, update the local package metadata database, and install man pages
(man-db)
• Tasks are evaluated against the state of the Linux machine, so multiple
approaches can be used.

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Instructor Preview Game Scenario
• One way: Setup and connect to server from game client on the
network
• Another way: Run both VMs on the same host.
• Connect client VM to VM physical host IP address.
• Port forwarding should open session.

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Demo

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