The first license of Junior Centrum Excelence informační bezpečnosti in Česku was awarded to a school in Dvůr Králové

The secondary school SPOŠ Dvůr Králové nad Labem became the first in České republice to receive a licence for Junior Centrum Excelence informační bezpečnosti. The licence is part of an initiative focused on supporting high-quality cyber security education at secondary schools.

CZECH CYBER TV was on site at the ceremonial licence handover and brings a report from the school environment, which specializes in educating future cyber security professionals.

How the Junior Centrum Excelence licence works

The licence Junior Centrum Excelence informační bezpečnosti is intended for secondary schools that systematically dedicate themselves to teaching information and cyber security.

The project was created as an initiative of industry professionals and aims to set standards for high-quality teaching in this field.

Schools that want to obtain the licence must go through an assessment process and meet a number of conditions, for example:

• adhere to minimum security standards
• provide appropriate technological facilities for teaching
• implement systematic cyber security education
• collaborate with other schools and share experiences

Dvůr Králové is the first institution to go through the process and received licence number 1.

Cybersecurity education in a real environment

The school includes specialized laboratories that allow students to work with technologies similar to those used in real organizations.

Students have at their disposal, for example:

• tools for Wi-Fi pentesting
• laboratories with industrial control systems (PLC)
• simulations of SOC and CIRT environments
• hardware used for testing physical security
• open-source tools used in the security community

Great emphasis is placed on practical teaching. Students often have administrative access to systems and can experiment with their own projects.

"Destruction is allowed on the polygon."

— Tomáš Suchan, SPOŠ Dvůr Králové nad Labem, NT Automation s.r.o.

The goal is to create an environment where students can learn through real-world scenarios.

Simulations of attacks on critical infrastructure

One of the most interesting parts of the teaching are simulations of cyber attacks on industrial systems and critical infrastructure.

For example, the school has created a model of an energy infrastructure or a small pharmaceutical production line. Students can analyze incidents here, test defensive strategies, or reconstruct known cyber attacks from practice.

Thanks to this, they gain experience that they would otherwise only see in presentations or theoretical materials.

Graduates remain part of the project

The project also has another interesting aspect – some graduates of the school return after finishing their studies and participate in its further development.

One of them is Daniel Záruba, who now works at the school.

According to him, the biggest advantage of the study is the freedom and the possibility to experiment with technologies.

"We can basically do anything here. We have the opportunity to work with modern technologies and try new things."

— Daniel Záruba, graduate of the school

Cybersecurity as a standalone field

According to experts, education in the field of cybersecurity has advanced significantly over the past decade.

While cybersecurity was previously often just part of the broader IT curriculum, it is now gradually establishing itself as an independent field.

Initiatives like Junior Centrum Excelence informační bezpečnosti are intended to help create a network of schools that will be able to train new generations of specialists in this area.

Dvůr Králové is the first, but according to the project authors, other schools could follow.