Based in Genoa, the Academy aims to create experts in the field of defense and public administration, but also in the management of critical infrastructures by companies. Collaboration with the academic world, centers of excellence, institutions and businesses. Ad Profumo: "The war in Ukraine has amplified the problem of cyber threats that insiders have known for some time" 04 Apr 2022 Patrizia Licata Journalist
Leonardo has launched the Cyber & Security Academy, a new high-level training center created by the company to guarantee defense, public administration, critical infrastructures and businesses the skills and capabilities necessary to support the digital transition and face threats to national security . "More than increasing the threat of cyber attacks, the war in Ukraine has made it more evident, it has amplified a problem that insiders have known for some time." This was underlined by the CEO of Leonardo, Alessandro Profumo. “The three traditional domains, land, sea and air, have now been joined by two others, space and cyber. Everyone can be the object of attacks but certainly the infrastructures, from telecommunications to transport and networks, are the most exposed. Therefore, we need to raise the potential defense, but not because we are weaker in Italy, but because it is absolutely fundamental ". And, continues Profumo, “we need a unanimous response from the system”. "Italy is no longer at risk, any country is at risk and there are elements that must be defended". The Cyber & Security Academy, based in Genoa, will have the ability to deliver courses and seminars in Italy and abroad through various structures in the area. The aim of the training course is to make cyber security a systemic issue for all organizations. The technological heart of the Academy are the proprietary Cyber Range and Cyber Trainer platforms. Index of topics • Exercises with gamification and digital twin • Opportunities for the Italian training supply chain • The challenges of cybersecurity: skills alert in Italy Exercises with gamification and digital twin Designed according to the principles of gamification (which exploit mechanisms similar to those of games, such as assignment of objectives and achievement of rewards), they leverage virtualization and interoperability to simulate complex immersive operational scenarios in which to put into practice, in a group or individually, the acquired knowledge, thanks to the creation of digital twins of networks, systems and applications to be protected, as well as threats and tools for attack and defense.
Leonardo's platforms are able to support exercises with digital twins of thousands of nodes and hundreds of networks, simulating up to 5 complex scenarios simultaneously, with multiple teams and dozens of users per team. Opportunities for the Italian training supply chain The faculty of the Academy, made up of professionals in critical security domains, makes use of the skills of Leonardo's specialists and collaboration with the academic world, centers of excellence, institutions and companies. The Cyber & Security Academy also represents an opportunity for the territory and the Italian training supply chain, supporting Leonardo Lab and Hpc davinci-1 in the industrial digitization center created by Leonardo in Genoa and acting as an aggregator and federator of realities, contents and experiences, which can be combined and enhanced through Leonardo's experience and technological infrastructure. The challenges of cybersecurity: skills alert in Italy The Cyber & Security Academy is aimed at all actors involved in national security. Security is increasingly tested by the cyber threat: according to the latest Clusit report, 2,049 serious cyber attacks were recorded in the world in 2021, almost 10% more than in 2020, and cybercrime has cost, globally, 6 trillion dollars. In his cyber threat intelligence activity, Leonardo identified in 2021 macro cyber threats linked both to eCrime, aimed at financial profit, and to growing cyber intrusions to the detriment of the government, defense, aerospace and health sectors, but also of energy and telecommunications, without forgetting the industrial world. In this context, cybersecurity and intelligence activities play a fundamental role - for which Leonardo has over 160 expert analysts and platforms capable of 500,000 billion operations per second - dedicated to monitoring, identifying and analyzing cyber threats and decision support to minimize the impact of any attacks. But to protect digital ecosystems and strategic infrastructures, procedures and technologists are not enough: 85% of cyber violations are caused by human error. According to estimates by the National Cybersecurity Agency, in Italy today there is a need for at least 100,000 new IT security experts, while for the World Economic Forum (The Global Risks Report 2022) the gap of security professionals in the world is 3 million. Also according to the World Economic Forum (Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2022), 59% of global cyber-leaders would find it difficult to respond to a cybersecurity incident due to the lack of skills within their team. Leonardo's Cyber & Security Academy addresses these needs, to promote the culture of security and train the skills necessary to recognize the threats of physical and cyber space, to know how to understand and deal with them.