A powerful cybersecurity protection is significant to most public- or private-sector actions in the USA. In 2019, Government Order 13870 acknowledged that, “America’s cybersecurity workforce is a strategic asset that protects the American folks, the homeland, and the American lifestyle.” One final result of this government order is an effort to foster cybersecurity schooling by means of competitions. These occasions permit members to sort out real-world cybersecurity issues in a timed, aggressive, protected surroundings by means 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 surroundings for these professionals to dive into and discover lifelike eventualities.
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 one of the best 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 many others., had been created to help the President’s Cup. Whereas designing high-level challenges is a very powerful a part of a cybersecurity competitors, having a help staff that may course of and resolve opponents’ considerations in a well timed style is a crucial a part of making a cybersecurity competitors profitable. On this submit we current classes discovered from six years of internet hosting President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitions together with the need of competitors help staffing.
Help Workforce Objective and Construction
Although 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 supply 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. Typically a technical problem with a problem or the competitors surroundings wants restore, whereas different instances a competitor seeks readability a couple of explicit a part of the problem. The help staff retains the wheels transferring.
Help Hours and Tiers
The primary determination when planning help for a contest is deciding when to supply reside help. Some competitions supply reside help 24/7, whereas others supply reside help for particular instances throughout the rounds. Both manner, it’s vital to obviously talk the hours when opponents can and can’t anticipate reside help.
The President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors is run by means of Gameboard, an open supply utility, the place customers entry the challenges and attain out to the help staff by means 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 greatest triage and resolve points.
- Tier 1. In the course of the competitors, Tier 1 help workers are accountable 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 doable since there are time constraints throughout the aggressive rounds. Some examples of Tier 1 points embrace registration questions, profile updates, and common questions on guidelines.
- Tier 2. Typically a problem have to be escalated to builders for decision. Maybe a function requires troubleshooting, or an engineer should decide if the problem is working accurately. These engineers type 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, similar to infrastructure outages or bugs, might be probably the most severe to deal with due to their potential severity. For instance, if digital machines for all challenges are instantly unable to begin, the whole competitors grinds to a halt till the issue is rectified. Due to this fact, infrastructure specialists have to be obtainable or on name in case an pressing state of affairs emerges.
How do opponents attain help, and the way is an issue funneled to the right tier for decision?
Help Workflow and Responses
In the course of the President’s Cup, customers submit help tickets by means of the Gameboard utility. The help interface routinely captures the particular President’s Cup problem, the person’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 state of affairs both for decision or elevation to Tier 2. Both manner, the Tier 1 group communicates with the opponents that they’ve acquired 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 because the opponents solely have a sure period of time to participate in every spherical.
Whereas inventory solutions to typical person questions can function a common start line for support-team responses, it’s greatest 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 style however to reply to every competitor’s state of affairs in a passable manner.
Weekend and after-hour responses current distinctive conditions. If opponents can take part throughout instances when reside help received’t be staffed, the unavailability of help have to be communicated clearly (customers can entry the President’s Cup website 24/7 to learn the competitors’s guidelines and FAQ part, nonetheless).
Adjudication Points
Some points are uncommon sufficient (e.g., a competitor discovers an sudden technique to resolve a problem) or extreme sufficient (e.g., an infrastructure outage causes a contest delay) to require instant or post-round adjudication.
Often a person’s help ticket reveals an unknown drawback or infrastructure problem. 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.
Further 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 response to how a lot time directors imagine 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 must be thought-about appropriate however was graded as incorrect by the problem. This could occur in rare circumstances when a problem inadvertently has a number of appropriate 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. Help reviews summarize details about the help tickets dealt with throughout the competitors. They are often filtered for a particular spherical, a particular problem and/or different parameters similar to labels. Labels are tags added to particular person tickets that permit the help staff to simply establish, classify and search all tickets. Tickets might be labeled by spherical, problem (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 simple to run reviews. Reviews permit the help staff to focus on competitors drawback areas or points that have to be addressed earlier than an ensuing spherical. Reviews may function a place to begin for the planning of future competitions.
Six Classes Discovered in Supporting Cybersecurity Competitions
- Perceive Your Limits. Contemplate your plan for help when providing a cybersecurity competitors. If 24/7 help will probably be supplied, 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 comply with a tiered-support technique, no less than two folks have to be scheduled for each shift. Be sure to have sufficient staff members who possess the talents and availability to deal with help assignments.
- Analyze Knowledge. Use your help website’s reporting options throughout and after a contest to take a look at knowledge. With the President’s Cup, CISA and the SEI use Gameboard’s in depth, built-in reporting options to glean key details about competitors challenges and logistics (similar to rising 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 will help decide a contest’s staffing wants.
- Guarantee a powerful challenge-review course of. A powerful problem testing-and-review course of as highlighted within the Designing Nice Challenges for Cybersecurity Competitors weblog submit is integral to a profitable competitors. The aim right here is to establish and repair any problem points earlier than the competitors even begins. Consider this course of as providing help earlier than help is even needed. Extra challenge-testing earlier than a contest leads to
- Fewer challenge-specific help tickets throughout 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 growth. Examine what challenges drew probably the most help tickets. Are there widespread threads to a few of the issues highlighted within the tickets? For instance, if Safety Onion takes a very long time to begin when used within the problem surroundings, it is likely to be helpful to future opponents to focus on 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 record, have a plan useful for when life interferes along with your competitors.
- Have a simple communication technique that your help staff can use. In immediately’s work surroundings 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 similar 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 (similar to a sudden drawback along with your competitors’s cloud supplier).
- Hold a operating support-team classes discovered record all through the competitors that can assist you evolve your help course of for upcoming rounds and future competitions. Method any feedback or inside options about your help methodology by means of the eyes of your opponents and prospects. Hold 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.
Help Audiences – Who Advantages?
These help practices are the results of the SEI’s expertise working with CISA’s President’s Cup Cybersecurity Competitors. Help technique works in tandem with problem growth when planning a cybersecurity competitors, so support-team concerns aren’t 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.