Where cyber-attacks are welcome

Where cyber-attacks are welcome

Inside RMIT’s cloud-based cyber range, students don’t just learn about cyber threats, they launch attacks, defend systems and graduate ready for Vietnam’s most urgent security challenges.

In most classrooms, the goal is to avoid mistakes. At RMIT Cyber Arena, mistakes are the point.

This one-of-a-kind cloud-based training platform invites students to launch real cyberattacks, against intentionally vulnerable systems, so they can experience exactly how threats unfold, and more importantly, how to stop them.

Born from RMIT Vietnam’s Strategic Innovation Challenge and led by Dr Huo Chong Ling, Cluster lead of the Digital Innovation for Environmental and Societal Impact cluster at the School of Science, Engineering & Technology, the Cyber Arena is redefining what cybersecurity education looks like in Vietnam – not lectures and textbooks, but live exploits, defensive playbooks and the kind of hands-on pressure that the industry demands. 

Hands typing on a laptop showing lines of code in a terminal window.RMIT Cyber Arena gives students hands-on experience launching and stopping real cyberattacks.

Attack first, defend better

Vietnam is facing a critical shortage of cybersecurity talent – projections suggest a shortfall of up to 700,000 workers by 2028. The gap is not simply a matter of numbers, it reflects a deeper disconnect between how cybersecurity is taught and what employers actually need on the ground. Traditional academic programs often focus on theory, leaving graduates underprepared for the fast-moving, high-stakes reality of defending real systems.

RMIT Cyber Arena addresses this head-on. Deployed on AWS cloud infrastructure, the platform simulates enterprise-grade environments, complete with networks, servers, applications, and identity systems, where students carry out structured attack-and-defence scenarios drawn from real-world threat landscapes. Using industry tools such as the Metasploit Framework and guided by the globally recognised MITRE ATT&CK framework, students work through the full attack lifecycle, from reconnaissance and exploitation to detection, analysis, and remediation.

Crucially, the platform supports both offensive and defensive training, what the industry calls “red team” and “blue team” exercises, as well as “purple team” learning, where students switch between attacker and defender roles to understand how each side thinks. This dual perspective is rare in academic settings and directly mirrors the multi-role demands that industry professionals face.

Project lead of RMIT Cyber Arena initiative Dr Ling emphasised: “We want students to understand not just how to use security tools, but how attackers think and how defenders must respond. The Cyber Arena gives them a safe space to experience real pressure and develop the instincts that make a great security professional.”

A group of people working together around a laptop.Dr Huo Chong Ling guiding students as they launched a simulated cyberattack in the RMIT Cyber Arena.

A training ground the whole industry can benefit from

Beyond individual student outcomes, RMIT Cyber Arena is designed to make a broader community impact. As one of the first AWS cloud-native cyber ranges in any Vietnamese university, it brings the kind of infrastructure typically reserved for large enterprises directly into the hands of students and researchers. The platform’s scalable, cloud-based design means it can expand rapidly, supporting more users, more scenarios, and more complex simulations, without the prohibitive costs of physical hardware.

The Cyber Arena also serves as a research and validation platform. Security teams, researchers, and educators can use it to test assumptions, prototype defences, and run tabletop-to-technical exercises that are directly relevant to Vietnam’s evolving threat environment. This positions RMIT Vietnam not only as a training institution but as an active contributor to the national cybersecurity ecosystem.

The platform’s modular Labtainers-based component adds a further dimension: structured, guided lab exercises that take students from foundational concepts to advanced simulation in a seamless learning journey. Whether a student is encountering network scanning for the first time or carrying out a full privilege escalation exercise, the Cyber Arena meets them at their level and pushes them forward.

As Vietnam’s digital economy grows and cyber threats become more sophisticated, the need for battle-ready security professionals has never been greater. RMIT Cyber Arena is answering that call, not by teaching students about cybersecurity, but by placing them inside it. In a field where experience is everything, the Arena ensures that RMIT graduates enter the workforce having already faced the fire.

Story: Ha Hoang

Masthead image: Siarhei – stock.adobe.com

01 April 2026

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