What are exercises?

Exercises are bite-sized challenges developed by experts and derived from threat intelligence. They're a fundamental aspect of our platform and are designed to encourage analytical thinking, curiosity, and problem-solving.

Every exercise has its own description, learning outcome, difficulty level, and allocated points.

Some of our practical more hands-on exercises will spin up a virtual machine so that nothing you do within the exercise will affect your local IT infrastructure. Our exercises are safe spaces to experiment with tools and techniques and dig deep into malware samples. Use our platform as a sandbox environment to learn and achieve the skill level required in the real world.

How do I complete an exercise?

Our hands-on exercises provide information and clues for completion and are designed to get you using the tools and techniques to succeed. The answers are specific to the exercise, so you won't be able to find these on Google; although, we encourage self-research of the generic approach which will help with problem solving.

In our exercises, you might have to find hidden files or identify port names by completing commands. There's no "right" way to get the answer; it's all about applying your skills and knowledge to complete the tasks.

Using the clipboard

Exercises that have a virtual machine also have an in-lab clipboard feature. This allows you to temporarily store data copied from a lab or a browser window and paste it back into the lab. This was designed to avoid issues imposed on your own device's clipboard.

Note: the clipboard is disabled on malware labs!

Visit our clipboard support guide for more information on how to ensure a smooth clipboard-to-exercise experience.

What is a virtual machine and exercise container?

A virtual machine is a piece of software that emulates a computer. You can put virtual machine software on a Windows machine and create another Windows machine, a Linux machine, or multiple machines and network these on your own computer.

We create our Windows and Linux virtual machines in the cloud (AWS). They are real versions of Windows and Linux but don't run on physical machines. Instead, these virtual machines sit within exercise containers. When you start an exercise, the container starts the virtual machine it needs (typically Windows, Linux or both) and runs it.

What do I need to complete to be able to apply for a job?

You'll find two career paths assigned to you, on the main page of our platform (the Launchpad). These are:

Cyber Fundamentals
Defensive Security Operations

Only the Defensive Security Operations career path must be completed, to apply for jobs.

You may find completing collections in Cyber Fundamentals helpful if you are new to cybersecurity.

Feedback: found an issue with an exercise?

Our exercises are thoroughly tested by experts, but if you experience an issue, contact Customer Support and provide as much detail as possible.