Build a Nearly Free Vulnerability Testing Environment

I mentored ten (10) senior computer and data science students on their capstone project at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). The teams build two vulnerability testing environments – one in AWS and one in Google Cloud based on the following requirements:

• Cloud based penetration testing environment.

• Low or no cost security vulnerability scanning environment.

• Open source cybersecurity tools for testing applications and operating systems.

• Identify Targets (Application versions, Operating Systems, types of networks, etc.).

• Coordinate with the cloud service provider to get authorization for testing.

• Appropriately identify vulnerabilities (false positives).

The student response was impressive. The first few weeks they learned about the cloud environments, setup servers and software both vulnerability testing tools and vulnerable sites. Consider developing a University project.