Hands-on Cyber Learning
Applicable for individual learners, educators, and IT security organizations
Project Ares learning activities are integrated into a virtual cyber range surrounded by a gamified platform.
- Comprehensive - Concept-driven games and cyber skill exercises expand to challenging, real-world inspired threat scenarios
- Pragmatic - Online cyber range emulates typical networks and simulates network traffic in virtual machines
- Active - Game elements like scoring, leaderboards, and chat features keep learners engaged
Strengthen Enterprise Readiness
Encourage team collaboration and skills assessments to harden security posture.s
Enrich Academic Learning
Enrich the classroom with gamified, online learning to help students gain applied skills.
Prepare Government Defenders
Enable frontline cyber operators to “train as they fight” on simulated networks.
Learning Activities
Specialized Scenarios
Learn by doing: Critical thinking is needed to defeat real threats on the range. Gain confidence as you solve more complex problems in offensive & defensive missions where you confront threats like botnets, phishing and exfiltration, ransomware, and many more.
Foundational Scenarios
Practice makes perfect: Hands-on in a virtualized cyber range. Build your skills in a series of multilevel learning challenges that reinforce cyber skills including Linux, scripting, and forensics.
Assessments (Capture the Flag)
Demonstrate Competency: Synthesize all your skills as you work without hints to complete the activities and find the hidden flags along the way.
Cyber Learning Games
Learn concepts: Perfect your understanding of the basics. Master basic cyber security concepts with fun, arcade style games that teach cyber kill chain, ports and protocol, regular expression techniques, and more.
Media Center
Cyber resources: The latest info on modern threats. Kickstart your cyber learning with 100+ hours of material in a curated collection of documents, web resources, and videos for all things cyber.
Features for Players
Athena, the In Game Advisor
Get help: Need a tutor? Athena is ready to answer your questions. Progress through tight spots in your mission with guidance from Athena. Her suggestions are based on common questions asked across the Project Ares community.
NIST/NICE Framework
Align and identify: Measurable learning objectives are tied to NIST’s National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) framework and work roles to support skill gap analysis.
Hints and Playback
Evaluate skills: Check out your performance in session playback. Look at the hints used to figure out the activities that need more practice.
Global Chat
Create connections: Join a community of Project Ares players. Chat about cyber security issues, in-game challenges, and leaderboard stats. Learn together.
Experience Points
Level up: Gain experience points while improving cyber security skills. As you progress, collect all the skill badges and earn a coin the first time you complete each mission successfully.
Features for Trainers and Educators
Trainer View for Mission Coaching
Observe and coach: Trainers can observe single or team mission play in real time or via session playback to coach players. And, because threats are unpredictable, trainers can create realistic challenges by joining live mission play as an unexpected adversary.
Trainer View for Team or Class Performance
Analyze and assess: Manage cross-team skill gaps and build ROI with Trainer Tools to access group or class scores, activity data, and reports. Drill down to assess individual learning with single player reports and work role learning path data.