Abstract

In an era of increased reliance on technology to manage government services, the need for government bodies in the U.S. to protect their infrastructure from cybersecurity threats becomes apparent. The Ohio Cyber Reserve is a militia that operates under the Ohio National Guard to mitigate vulnerabilities and defend against cyber-attacks. To help prepare for future threats, the Ohio Cyber Guardian Exercise of 2023 occurred from July 15th to July 18th of 2023 to validate incident response teams from the Ohio Cyber Reserve following a simulated cybersecurity attack. In the months of preparation prior to the exercise, a virtualized network infrastructure was designed and implemented by the Range Team to simulate a realistic environment for cyber-attacks and incident response scenarios. When the middle-sized town was designed, research was conducted, and requirements were gathered to influence design decisions on the network’s architecture.