A cyber security architecture for improving remote laboratories security: a case of Makerere University ILabs

Abstract

Online/remote laboratories play a very crucial role in offering practical experiments to engineering classes as a solution to offset the limitations and burdens of traditional physical laboratories. However, being online laboratories that they are, they operate over the internet and hence under a sea of threats and vulnerabilities, that compromise the integrity, availability and confidentiality of these online laboratories. This research study thus sought a panacea in developing a cyber-security architecture to improve the cyber security of remote laboratories with the case of Makerere University iLabs (iLabs@Mak). The research study focused on generating a threat model for the online laboratories at Makerere University, followed by security requirements generation which was later followed by the design of cyber security physical, technical and administrative controls (safeguards) that together formed a cybersecurity architecture for the remote laboratories. The developed cyber security architecture was then validated by use of a Likert scale to ascertain its fitness to improve the cyber security of remote laboratories. The research study was conducted under the umbrella of design science research methodology and deployed a blend of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods that were employed virtually through phone calls and online forms/questionnaires. The sample size of the research study was controlled by use of Krejcie and Morgan’s formula/table. All the participants of this research were selected by purposive sampling technique because the research required very specific qualities and qualifications from the participants. The output of this research was a cyber-security architecture constituting of technical, administrative and physical controls that are expected to improve the cyber security of online laboratories, upon implementation.