SimSpace Cyber Range Enables Practical, Real-World Defensive Exercises

“One of SimSpace’s founders, a former U.S. Air Force officer, says that 'whether in fighter aviation or cybersecurity, practical skills cannot be developed without completing at least 10 full-scale exercises,’” said Takashi Omukai of Information Development.

Cyberattacks today are increasingly carried out at a level comparable to military operations — strategic, multi-layered and simultaneous. By contrast, Japan’s domestic cyber defense posture is often seen as insufficient. Practical response capabilities cannot be acquired through classroom learning alone. “Security investment in Japan has tended to focus on tools and equipment. Without greater investment in human resources, organizations risk remaining vulnerable,” Omukai said.

Against this backdrop, the SimSpace Cyber Range was developed jointly by the company’s two founders — one with a background in the U.S. Air Force and the other at MIT Lincoln Laboratory — in collaboration with U.S. Cyber Command. The platform enables both attack and defense training, as well as validation exercises, with a virtual network environment. The system has been adopted not only by branches of the U.S. military, including the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, but also by more than 200 cyber commands, intelligence agencies and government institutions worldwide, including in Japan. In the United States, it is also used by four major banks.

One of its distinguishing features is the ability to recreate realistic network environment. By simulating internet services such as email, web and the Domain Name System, it can generate traffic patterns that resemble those of actual business operations. Built on VMware virtualization technology, the platform also allows organizations to deploy their own security tools, bringing the environment closer to real-world conditions.

It can also reproduce attack techniques used by real-world threat actors through automated scenarios. The platform includes more than 40 types of attack patterns, enabling repeated exercises at relatively low cost. Future versions are expected to incorporate functions for evaluating security products and improving detection capabilities, as well as mechanisms to automatically assess the outcomes of training exercises.