Question 1

What is HackTheFort?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort is a practical cybersecurity lab platform for colleges, universities, training institutes, and academic programmes. It provides private, repeatable lab environments where students can learn, practise, and be assessed through hands-on scenarios instead of relying only on theory or isolated demonstrations. HackTheFort helps institutions conduct practical cybersecurity and computing labs with structured student workflows, automated deployment, activity visibility, assessments, and faculty-facing reports.

Question 2

Who is HackTheFort built for?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort is primarily designed for educational institutions that teach subjects such as computer networks, cybersecurity, digital forensics, DevOps/DevSecOps, web security, cloud security, and related practical subjects. It can support learners across different academic levels, with labs selected according to the subject, prerequisites, and expected difficulty.

Question 3

How is HackTheFort different from a normal online cyber lab platform?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort is built around the needs of institutions rather than only individual learners — syllabus-aligned practical labs, private institute-specific environments, faculty visibility into student activity and progress, structured practical assessments, repeatable deployment and reset, reports usable after a conducted lab, hosted or institution-hosted deployment models, and scenario-based learning that connects multiple practical concepts. The goal is to help faculty conduct and evaluate practical work at classroom scale.

Question 4

Has HackTheFort been tested in a college?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort completed a pilot with the Cyber Security Department at SAKEC, where students used the platform in a live lab setting. The pilot tested student workflows, lab delivery, and classroom fit. HackTheFort is pre-incubated at VJTI TBI.

Question 5

Which subjects does HackTheFort currently support?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort is currently focused on practical modules across Computer Networks, Digital Forensics & Incident Response (DFIR), Scripting Language, DevOps/DevSecOps, Web and Cybersecurity fundamentals, and OT/ICS security exposure through a separate development track. Computer Networks is currently one of the most tested areas on the platform; Digital Forensics and Scripting Language labs have also been piloted, while DevOps/DevSecOps modules are scheduled for the next validation phase. The catalogue will continue to expand based on curriculum requirements and partner-institution feedback.

Question 6

Are HackTheFort labs mapped to a college syllabus?

Accepted Answer

Yes. HackTheFort reviews the relevant syllabus with faculty and agrees which available labs fit the subject, student level, practical outcomes, and academic calendar before a trial or deployment begins.

Question 7

Do all students complete the same labs?

Accepted Answer

Not necessarily. Labs can be assigned according to the student’s year, subject, and prerequisite knowledge — for example, Computer Networks labs for first- or second-year learners, Scripting Language & automation labs for second-year learners, DevOps/DevSecOps labs for second- or third-year learners, and Digital Forensics or advanced security labs for senior students. This allows a department to use HackTheFort across multiple cohorts rather than forcing every learner through the same sequence.

Question 8

What difficulty levels do the labs have?

Accepted Answer

Lab difficulty depends on the topic and learning objective. A typical progression includes Foundation labs (guided practical work introducing tools, environments, and core concepts), Applied labs (troubleshooting, investigating, configuring, or analysing with less guidance), and Scenario/assessment labs (combining multiple skills to solve a larger practical task or incident). Where appropriate, labs are organised as a progression rather than unrelated exercises.

Question 9

How long does one lab take?

Accepted Answer

Duration depends on the subject and complexity of the scenario. Many academic labs are designed around a normal college practical session, while larger investigation or assessment scenarios may require a longer scheduled block. The expected duration is shared with faculty before the lab is scheduled.

Question 10

Can a college request a completely custom lab?

Accepted Answer

Yes, but custom development is scoped separately. HackTheFort does not include unlimited custom lab creation inside a standard evaluation or semester fee. If a college requires a new scenario, specialised environment, new tooling, or a lab built specifically around part of its syllabus, HackTheFort first reviews the requirement and then confirms feasibility, development time, infrastructure requirements, and commercial scope. Where possible, new labs are designed to remain maintainable and reusable rather than becoming one-off demonstrations.

Question 11

Can our institute try HackTheFort first?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Institutes can request a free 15-day trial of selected, currently available Institute Cyber Lab Platform labs. We confirm the labs, access, setup, and start date with your faculty before the trial begins.

Question 12

What does the 15-day trial include?

Accepted Answer

The agreed trial includes selected practical labs, student and faculty workspaces, curriculum scoping, and the available provisioning and reset workflows for those labs. Custom lab development, dedicated hardware, OT/ICS hardware-in-the-loop deployment, and continued access after 15 days are outside the trial scope.

Question 13

How do we get pricing?

Accepted Answer

Pricing depends on your selected subjects, cohort, lab requirements, and deployment model. Contact our team to discuss your institute’s needs and receive a scoped proposal.

Question 14

What happens after the trial?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort and the institute review the trial experience. Any continued or expanded access is discussed and scoped separately; there is no automatic paid conversion.

Question 15

Is HackTheFort HTF-managed or institute-hosted?

Accepted Answer

Both models can be supported depending on the engagement. HTF-managed: HackTheFort provisions and manages the required lab environment, and students access the platform through the institution’s systems using a browser where applicable. Institute-hosted: the college or university provides compatible infrastructure, while HackTheFort deploys the agreed platform and lab environments subject to minimum hardware and network requirements. The suitable model is selected based on lab requirements, institutional infrastructure, concurrency, and support expectations.

Question 16

Do colleges need to purchase new computers for students?

Accepted Answer

Not necessarily. For browser-accessible lab environments, students can use the institution’s existing lab systems as access terminals, provided those systems and the campus network meet the required browser and connectivity conditions. The compute required to run the actual lab environments may be hosted by HackTheFort or provided by the institution depending on the deployment model.

Question 17

How many students can use HackTheFort at the same time?

Accepted Answer

Capacity depends on the selected lab environments and practical schedule — a lightweight networking practical does not consume the same resources as a multi-machine security or forensic environment. During onboarding, HTF reviews expected batch sizes and lab workloads with the institute and plans the required infrastructure accordingly, rather than advertising a single concurrency number for every lab.

Question 18

Is dedicated hardware included?

Accepted Answer

No. Dedicated servers, institute-specific hardware, and PLC or OT/ICS hardware are scoped separately where an institute requires them.

Question 19

Can HackTheFort support multiple colleges at the same time?

Accepted Answer

Yes, subject to available infrastructure and scheduling. Institution-specific environments can be deployed separately so that different colleges, batches, or courses do not share the same working lab instance. Capacity planning is performed according to the number of institutions, simultaneous sessions, and the resource requirements of each lab.

Question 20

What happens to a lab after students finish it?

Accepted Answer

Where supported, HackTheFort environments can be reset or redeployed so the same scenario can be repeated for another batch without manually rebuilding the lab from scratch. The exact reset and persistence behaviour depends on the design of the lab and the assessment requirements.

Question 21

Can faculty track student progress?

Accepted Answer

Yes. HackTheFort is designed to give faculty visibility into student activity and practical progress, which can include student or team identity, lab status, completion percentage, automated checkpoint results, submission status, joining and activity timestamps, and assessment outcomes depending on the lab. The reporting model continues to expand as the platform develops.

Question 22

Does HackTheFort provide reports after a lab?

Accepted Answer

Yes. HackTheFort can provide faculty-facing reports after conducted sessions, which may include participation, completion status, scores or validation checkpoints, and student-level performance data depending on the lab. HackTheFort is also working toward richer consolidated reporting for semester-level academic use.

Question 23

Can HackTheFort be used for practical examinations?

Accepted Answer

Yes, suitable labs can be configured as time-limited practical assessments. Assessment workflows may combine automated technical checks with faculty-reviewed responses depending on the subject. Examination requirements should be discussed separately, since practical exams may need additional scheduling, monitoring, infrastructure, grading rules, and reliability requirements.

Question 24

Is every task automatically graded?

Accepted Answer

No. Many technical tasks can be validated automatically — configuration checks, service state, connectivity, or completion checkpoints — but subjects such as Digital Forensics may also require students to interpret evidence, explain findings, or submit investigation responses that benefit from faculty review. HackTheFort supports a combination of automated technical validation and academic evaluation.

Question 25

Does HackTheFort integrate with LMS platforms?

Accepted Answer

LMS integration is part of the planned institutional product roadmap, but it should not be assumed to be included in every current deployment. If an institution requires integration with a specific LMS or academic system, that requirement should be discussed during discovery so the integration scope and feasibility can be evaluated.

Question 26

Does HackTheFort train faculty before the programme starts?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort can provide faculty orientation for the agreed programme so instructors understand the lab objectives, student workflow, reporting, and session requirements. The level of faculty onboarding depends on whether the lab is HackTheFort-led, faculty-led, or delivered using a hybrid model.

Question 27

Who conducts the lab session?

Accepted Answer

The delivery model is agreed with the institution. Depending on the programme, a session may be conducted by HackTheFort, conducted by the institution’s faculty using HackTheFort material, or delivered jointly during early adoption. As the platform matures, the goal is to make more labs repeatable and faculty-operable without requiring the HackTheFort team to manually conduct every session.

Question 28

What technical support is provided?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort provides technical support for planned sessions according to the agreed engagement scope, which can include environment provisioning, deployment checks, access troubleshooting, and lab-session support. Support expectations for full curriculum deployments, dedicated infrastructure, or institution-hosted installations are documented separately in the commercial proposal.

Question 29

Does HackTheFort support OT and ICS cybersecurity?

Accepted Answer

HackTheFort has a separate Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) cyber range development track for OT/ICS and cyber-physical security. This work combines real control hardware with safe, repeatable environments so OT security concepts can be studied without interacting with live industrial production systems. The HIL range is separate from the standard Institute Cyber Lab Platform and may have different infrastructure, scheduling, and deployment requirements.

Question 30

Is OT/ICS included in the 15-day institute trial?

Accepted Answer

No. The Hardware-in-the-Loop Cyber Range is a separate research track on dedicated hardware. It is scoped separately according to the controller, process, learning objectives, and institutional use case.

Question 31

How can we discuss deployment and pricing?

Accepted Answer

Contact the HackTheFort team with your subjects, expected cohort, and preferred hosting model. We will review your requirements and discuss a suitable deployment and quote.

Question 32

Can one college use HackTheFort for multiple departments or year groups?

Accepted Answer

Yes, depending on the purchased scope. Because labs can target different subjects and academic levels, a department may schedule different modules for different cohorts. Multi-department or larger institution-wide deployments should be discussed separately so infrastructure, access, reporting, and pricing are appropriately scoped.

Question 33

Is infrastructure included in the price?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the deployment model and proposal. For HackTheFort-hosted engagements, infrastructure requirements are considered as part of the commercial scope. If the institution provides compatible hardware, the pricing structure may differ because the deployment and operating model is different. Infrastructure-heavy labs may also require additional capacity planning compared with lighter container-based environments.

Question 34

Can an institution see HackTheFort before joining?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Institutions can begin with a faculty discussion and platform demonstration. HackTheFort can then understand the institution’s subjects, existing practical approach, student strength, infrastructure, and academic objectives before proposing the most suitable engagement.

Question 35

How can our college get started?

Accepted Answer

Request a free 15-day trial or contact HackTheFort with your institution, department, relevant subjects, expected number of students, and preferred timeline. We will confirm which currently available labs fit your practical requirements.

Questions about HackTheFort.

Platform & Labs

Free Trial

Hosting & Infrastructure

Faculty, Assessment & Reports

OT / ICS

Pricing & Deployment

Ready to evaluate HackTheFort at your institution?