The Range Desk
The Range Desk: dated notes on security training and exercises
Short answer
Dated notes on what changes the choice of security training: what benchmarks say about AI in technical work, what detection data means for SOC training, where to start for free, and how short an exercise can usefully be. Every note states its publication date and the dates of its sources. Vendor figures are quoted as the vendors' statements.
By The Range Desk · Cyber Range Compare · Published 2026-10-11
Desk research from public vendor, standards and regulator pages read on 27 September, 11 October and 13 October 2026. Profiles follow our published method; we did not run the products.
Which notes are on the desk?
8 of 8 notes
2026-10-12 · 4 min
Microsimulations and sixty-minute sessions: how short can a useful exercise be?Exercises have shrunk from half-day tabletops to minutes-long microsimulations. What short formats do well, what they lose, and how to mix them.
- Crisis simulation
- Evidence
2026-10-10 · 4 min
Awareness training is not incident response training: a note for Cybersecurity Awareness MonthOctober brings free awareness material and a push to train everyone. What awareness training covers, what it does not, and how to use the month well.
- Awareness
- Buying
2026-10-08 · 4 min
Training on the tools you already run: Falcon, Splunk and Sentinel inside training platformsImmersive Labs added live CrowdStrike Falcon environments and exercising inside Splunk, Sentinel and QRadar in 2026. What tool-native training changes and what to check.
- Cyber range
- Hands-on labs
2026-10-06 · 4 min
Accredited certificates in technical training: what ANAB accreditation meansFour RangeForce certificate programmes won ANAB accreditation in July 2026. What accreditation covers, and how certificates fit a training evidence pack.
- Hands-on labs
- Evidence
2026-10-04 · 4 min
Cyber range or crisis simulation first? A decision for a team with one budget lineWhen one budget line has to choose between a technical range and a crisis exercise, how to decide, and what each leaves undone.
- Cyber range
- Crisis simulation
- Buying
2026-10-02 · 4 min
Free starting points: what you can do before spending anything on trainingFree tiers, trials, free tabletop packages and a free awareness kit: what each covers and where free stops.
- Buying
- Hands-on labs
- Crisis simulation
2026-09-30 · 4 min
M-Trends 2026 and the case for training detection, not only responseDwell time rose and internal detection improved in M-Trends 2026. What the numbers suggest for SOC labs, ranges and crisis exercises.
- Cyber range
- Research
2026-09-28 · 4 min
What Hack The Box's 2026 benchmarks say about AI in technical trainingTwo Hack The Box benchmark reports show AI-using teams solving more, faster. What that means for how analysts should train.
- Hands-on labs
- Research
Read next
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Plain definitions of the terms used in security training.
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