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Basic cybersecurity training isn’t going to cut it today, with threat actors getting more organized and sophisticated every day.
To protect themselves and their customers, companies need to level up their training. And hands-on virtual cybersecurity labs are the best way to do it.
This blog covers the basics of cybersecurity labs and recommends seven of the very best cybersecurity labs online.
What is a Cybersecurity Lab?
A cybersecurity lab is a virtual environment that provides hands-on training through simulated challenges or scenarios. They’re typically used for knowledge and skills development.
Benefits of Running a Cyber Security Simulation Lab
A cybersecurity lab offers all the same benefits as any hands-on software training. Rather than forcing reliance on passive memorization, they give your team an opportunity to develop and test practical skills.
A cybersecurity lab can deliver engaging security awareness training across your organization, providing additional protection against social engineering attacks.
If the cybersecurity lab you’re using can support a cyber range, you can also use it to test new tools, technology, and strategies without putting your network at risk. After all, it’s better to identify a weakness in your ransomware response process through a simulation rather than during an actual attack, right?
You can even use data collected from your training to identify potential weak points in your infrastructure that may otherwise go unnoticed.
What to Look for in a Cybersecurity Lab
When evaluating a cybersecurity lab solution, ask yourself the following questions:
- What does my security team need and does the lab provide it?
- What about my other employees?
- Can this lab simulate my company’s operating environment?
- Are the lab’s scenarios regularly updated?
- How customizable is the lab and how customizable do I need it to be?
- Is the lab equipped with all the necessary security tools?
- How cost-effective is the lab compared to my other training options?
- What is the vendor’s experience? Do they have a positive reputation?
Our Top 8 Cybersecurity Labs for 2025
Cybersecurity labs can have a massive impact on your organization’s ability to detect, respond, and remediate threats. For most companies, the hardest part is choosing the right solution based on their needs.
Here’s a list of top cybersecurity labs to help make your choice a bit easier.
CloudShare
CloudShare is more than just a cybersecurity lab. Our platform is designed to allow organizations to create engaging, hands-on training experiences in any industry. Of course, it’s perfectly suited for cybersecurity use cases. You can easily spin up custom environments in any cloud with no code and minimal configuration, allowing you to simulate threats, provide tactical field training, and gather useful insights into team performance.
CloudShare makes it easy for you to get your teams battle-ready through training sessions that recreate the same scenarios they’ll face in the field.
Hack the Box
Hack the Box isn’t solely a cybersecurity lab. It’s a comprehensive platform designed to help organizations develop everything from basic cybersecurity awareness to advanced knowledge and skills. The platform makes excellent use of gamification, exemplified by Capture the Flag, a highly-customizable and immersive team-based hacking simulation.
Hack the Box also offers a diverse selection of cyber ranges, attack simulations, and hands-on labs for individuals as well as businesses and educators.
Crybrary
As one of the top cybersecurity training companies in the world, Crybary maintains a massive catalog of cybersecurity training content developed by industry experts. Within its library, you’ll find a multitude of labs covering everything from basic penetration testing and intrusion detection to ethical hacking. There are even several courses on how to build and maintain your own lab.
CyberDefenders
CyberDefenders’ Blue Team Labs adopt a gamified approach to helping Security Operations professionals develop the right mindset and skills for cyber defense. The labs combine real-world scenarios with features such as leaderboards, titles, and badges to great effect. There’s a huge library of gamified security challenges you can download and deploy via VM for free, with cloud-based labs available via subscription.
Pentester Academy
Available through a monthly subscription to Pentester Academy, the AttackDefense Labs platform features over 2,000 unique lab exercises. The labs are accessible entirely via a web browser, and each student is connected to their own dedicated lab with no usage limitations. Pentester Academy also prides itself on keeping the labs up to date, and is constantly adding new exercises and updating its network and stack components.
Project Juice Shop
Developed by the OWASP Foundation, Project Juice Shop is an intentionally insecure web application intended to serve as a hacking training ground. The app features the OWASP Top Ten vulnerabilities, a laundry list of security flaws, and a scoreboard that tracks the user’s progress. Finding the scoreboard is one of the challenges.
Immersive Labs
Ranked as a Leader in the 2023 Forrester Wave: Cybersecurity Skills and Training Platforms, Immersive Labs helps both security teams and the general workforce build critical security proficiency. The Immersive Labs platform provides a gamified learning environment covering everything from infrastructure and application security to threat monitoring, with the option to deploy scenario-based exercises that target specific knowledge and skills. Companies also have the option of running full crisis simulations to test their incident response capabilities.
TryHackMe
TryHackMe is an AI-powered simulated security operations center (SOC) that provides guided, immersive learning no matter your skill level. With over 800 training labs and multiple learning pathways, the platform is designed to make learning about cybersecurity both engaging and entertaining. Learning paths and some more advanced features are locked behind an affordable annual subscription, and business pricing is available on request.
Next Steps: Dive into Cyber Ranges
After reading all this, you may want to consider how to work cyber labs into your long-term security strategy. In that case, check out From Cybersecurity Training to Cyber Resilience: 8 Major Benefits of Cyber Range Platforms.Interested in seeing how CloudShare can transform your cybersecurity training program? Book a demo to see how easy (and real) CloudShare makes cybersecurity training.
FAQs
What are the benefits of using virtual cybersecurity labs for training?
Virtual cybersecurity labs provide hands-on training through simulated challenges that develop practical skills rather than relying on passive memorization. They allow teams to test new tools and strategies without risking actual networks, identify infrastructure weaknesses, and deliver engaging security awareness training that helps protect against social engineering attacks.
What should companies look for when choosing a cybersecurity lab?
When evaluating cybersecurity labs, companies should consider whether the platform meets their security team’s specific needs, can simulate their operating environment, offers regularly updated scenarios, provides necessary customization options, includes essential security tools, and offers good value compared to alternative training methods. Vendor experience and reputation are also important factors.
Which cybersecurity lab platforms are best for different skill levels?
CloudShare and Immersive Labs are excellent for organizations needing customizable environments across skill levels, while Hack The Box and TryHackMe offer gamified experiences with CTF challenges. CyberDefenders specializes in Blue Team training, Pentester Academy provides over 2,000 exercises for penetration testers, and Project Juice Shop offers free practice with OWASP vulnerabilities.
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