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Cybersecurity training and healthcare: the AERAS approach

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Abstract

Cyber ranges have gained significant importance in cybersecurity training in recent years, and they are still playing a role of paramount importance, thanks to their ability to give trainees hands-on experience with real-world exercises. This paper presents the motivation and objective of the AERAS project, including a thorough analysis of data from ad hoc interviews and surveys specifically designed and administered for the project’s goals. AERAS aims to apply the cyber range concept to the critical healthcare sector. The AERAS platform will be a virtual cyberwarfare solution that will simulate the operation and effects of security controls and offer hands-on training on their development, assessment, use, and management.

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Data availability

The questionnaire responses and interview data collected for this study were anonymous and kept confidential to ensure participants’ privacy. We will submit the anonymized data supporting this research’s findings to a public archive after publication.

Notes

  1. https://www.cyberbit.com/

  2. https://cyberrange.at/

  3. https://virginiacyberrange.org/

  4. https://www.merit.edu/cyberrange

  5. https://www.peostri.army.mil/national-cyber-range-ncr

  6. https://shorturl.at/hvzAY

  7. General Data Protection Regulation, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2016/679/oj

  8. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/index.html

  9. https://crp.kypo.muni.cz/

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Funding

This work has been partly funded by the European Commission within the H2020 MSCA project AERAS (Grant No. 872735).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sphynx Analytics Ltd, 108, Nicosia Business Centre, 33 Neas Engomis, 2409, Nicosia, Cyprus

    George Nikitakis & George Spanoudakis

  2. 3DMI research group, Department of Medical Physics, University of Patras, 26504, Rion, Greece

    Dimitris Plachouris, Efstratios Syrmas & George C. Kagadis

  3. AEGIS, 25 Humboldt Str, Braunschweig, Germany

    Georgiana Darau & Jihane Najar

  4. Computer Science Department, Università degli Studi di Milano, via Celoria 18, 20133, Milano, Italy

    Fulvio Frati & Ernesto Damiani

  5. Cyprus University of Technology, 30 Arch. Kyprianos Str., 3036, Limassol, Cyprus

    Nikos Salamanos, Pantelitsa Leonidou, Costas Iordanou, Konstantinos Kalais & Michael Sirivianos

  6. University General Hospital of Heraklion, Leof. Panepistimiou, Iraklio, 71500, Greece

    Evangelos Floros & Stella Tsichlaki

Authors
  1. Fulvio Frati
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  2. Georgiana Darau
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  3. Nikos Salamanos
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  4. Pantelitsa Leonidou
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  5. Costas Iordanou
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  6. Dimitris Plachouris
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  7. Efstratios Syrmas
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  8. Evangelos Floros
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  9. George Nikitakis
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  10. George Spanoudakis
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  11. Konstantinos Kalais
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  12. Stella Tsichlaki
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  13. Ernesto Damiani
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  14. George C. Kagadis
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  15. Jihane Najar
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  16. Michael Sirivianos
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pantelitsa Leonidou.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest related to this research.

Ethical approval

The authors received ethical approval to conduct this study from the Ethics Committee of the University of Milan. Additionally, all data collection procedures for non-personally identifiable information were approved by the Data Protection Officers of the AERAS project beneficiaries.This study involved the administration of questionnaires and interviews with human subjects. The study adhered to ethical principles, and participants’ consent was obtained before involvement. The authors ensured that all participants were informed about the nature of the study, their participation was voluntary, and their responses were kept confidential and anonymous.

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Frati, F., Darau, G., Salamanos, N. et al. Cybersecurity training and healthcare: the AERAS approach. Int. J. Inf. Secur. 23, 1527–1539 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10207-023-00802-y

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