Information Security Lab Development with Free and Open Source Software: Applied Cryptology and Secure Communications

Several current trends are making the securing of an enterprise’s informational assets increasingly challenging. Three significant trends are that enterprises are increasingly: Fortunately, there are also Open Source Cryptographic Toolkits that have worked well in our lab environment. This paper presents the author’s experience in the development of laboratory modules for an applied cryptography and secure communications course. These laboratory modules utilize Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) in a networked computer lab environment. In addition to conventional utilities, the lab modules utilize two FOSS cryptographic toolkits. One toolkit, OpenSSL, is available for both Linux and Windows environments. The other toolkit, CryptTool, was originally available exclusively for Windows though there is also a Linux version available.