Cyber Resilience Adaptive Virtual Reality Experiences (CRAVRE)

Principal Investigator: Mesut Akdere

Purdue University and the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) propose an innovative training approach to develop awareness of the connectivity created by the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies among public safety officials and impacts of cyberattacks on these technologies could have on incident response and recovery. In doing this, we will increase the community’s ability to prevent an attack and continue to enhance the community’s resilience.

Our approach includes a series of scenario-based, immersive, experiential learning opportunities in which cyber incidents occur concurrently with another disaster. Through these scenarios, participants will observe cause-and-effect reactions to the ubiquitous connected IoT technologies and identify strategies and techniques to adapt and prevent IoT-based attacks. Utilizing artificial intelligence techniques, we will develop an AI-powered customizable learning module. In addition, our course will be adaptive to the learner and easily accessible through a web-based platform tailored to operate on individuals’ personal devices.

The overarching objective of this course is to increase awareness around cybersecurity threats among states and communities to enable them effectively manage cybersecurity incidents that may emerge during a concurrent disaster. The Cyber Resilience Adaptive Virtual Reality Experiences (CRAVRE) course encompasses a whole community approach that addresses preventing the IoT based cybersecurity attacks for Emerging Threats. The course is designed to best fit the Management level as determined by the Unified Training Needs Assessment (UTNA). The course is designed to be completed in six and a half hours, presented in several modular segments, including four cybersecurity scenarios. This includes four different scenarios used to reinforce the strategies and techniques for identifying vulnerabilities and preventing attacks via IoT technologies. There are no prerequisites for taking this course.

We propose a ground-breaking paradigm by developing and distributing an adaptive, immersive learning environment that distributed through web-based, mobile, and virtual reality (VR) platforms, providing multiple access options to learners. Our approach is innovative due to the context of the learning—virtual reality (VR), but also cutting-edge through an artificial intelligence (AI) powered component that will allow the course to adapt to the individual learning styles and needs while they are engaged in the course and as they return to repeat the course. To accomplish this, we will develop an AI-powered learner-in-the-loop personalized learning module with adaptive granularity to meet the needs of both the individual and the prescribed outcomes of the training.

Through this approach, both participants and organizations do not need to invest extensive time in physical exercise during work hours because they can participate in training whenever and where they desire. Second, participants will receive immediate feedback when they fail or succeed during the training which results in reinforced learning, higher level cognition, and increased learning retention.  Third, this approach is resilient making by providing the learning experiences before a natural disaster which will ultimately reduce the strain on the federal government later on after being affected by a natural disaster, which is well aligned with the FEMA mission to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared”.

Personnel

Other PIs: Dr. Umit Karabiyik, Dr. Jin Kocsis, Dr. Jason Moats

Students: Flavio Lobo, Miloš Stanković, Mututhanthrige Fernando, Elizabeth Rakes

Keywords: AI, Cybersecurity, incident response and recovery, Internet of Things (IoT), VR