OSHEAN is a member of a national coalition of Research and Education
Networks (RENs) called the Quilt who continuously collaborate to share
best practices and services.
We are all tied together physically by the
called Secure Sandbox – a program designed to
national 100Gbps backbone called Internet2.
“teach, train, and test the security of strategic
This community is an invaluable resource for
systems in the safety of an isolated world.”
OSHEAN and our members and we actively
engage in the programs Internet2 and the Quilt
provide. One of the leading institutions in our
community is the Merit in Michigan.
Secure Sandbox provides a flexible, secure
environment that can be used for cybersecurity education, training exercises and software
testing. Located in a virtual cloud, the Secure
Merit is a nonprofit, member-owned REN
Sandbox simulates a real-world networked
formed in 1966 to design and implement a com-
environment with virtual machines that act as
puter network between public universities in
web servers, mail servers and other types of
Michigan. After nearly 50 years of innovation,
machines.
Merit continues to provide high-performance
networking and services to the research and
education communities in Michigan and beyond. One of its core missions is to drive awareness of the need for highly secure networks and
the resources that are available to members for
safe Internet use and data protection.
Merit has implemented a 10/100 Gbps backbone and is in the process of extending it across
Michigan to continue providing a flexible,
robust architecture to support the state’s research and education needs and fortify a strong
educational community. The core Merit principle is that by connecting organizations, building
relationships and sharing services, educational
institutions can achieve far more together than
they can alone.
Merit is a national leader in developing security
practices for their members and for Quilt members as well. One of Merit’s star programs is
Secure Sandbox is a valuable resource for cybersecurity training. It can come fully stocked
with tools and targets, allowing for a full range
of security exploration in a safe, secure environment. Access to the Sandbox is controlled
completely by the instructor, who can create
and administer course material.
It is also used to facilitate cybersecurity measures by enabling member organizations to run
cybersecurity exercises using Secure Sandbox’s
Alphaville cybersecurity training environment.
Alphaville is a simulation environment that
features computing resources that are typically
found at a city hall, police station, power plant,
library or school.
Another way to think of Alphaville is like a
virtual village for cybersecurity training. Merit
compares Alphaville to environments like the
U.S. Army’s National Training Center, the FBI’s
Hogan’s Alley and the tactical training range
Stronger Together
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