collage of images showing computers, power lines, people and text cyber experimentationHow do cybersecurity experts discover how to properly defend a system or build a network that’s secure?

As in other domains of science, this process involves hypothesis, experimentation, and analysis — or at least it should. In reality, cybersecurity research can happen in an ad hoc fashion, often in crisis mode in the wake of an attack.

However, a set of researchers has imagined a different approach, one in which experts can test their theories and peers can review their work in realistic but contained environments — not unlike the laboratories found in other fields of science.

A new report released by the National Science Foundation offers a vision for a new generation of experimental cybersecurity research. Click here to read more details.