Cyber4All: An Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity Minor for all Undergraduates

Towson University, Towson MD

Investigators

Abstract

Cybersecurity has critical political, military, economic, social, infrastructure, and information implications for our nation. Effective cybersecurity solutions require initiatives that not only prepare computer scientists to be cybersecurity professionals, but extend security education to all majors to produce a cybersecurity prepared workforce. As cyberspace has become ubiquitous, cybersecurity has become everyone's business. A comprehensive cybersecurity education model needs to reach all students and disciplines impacted by cybersecurity issues. Cyber4All presents a scalable model for Interdisciplinary Cybersecurity education that includes: (1) An interdisciplinary cybersecurity minor--A multidisciplinary team of industry and academic experts will design an interdisciplinary cybersecurity minor that will include foundational security knowledge based on guidelines in cybersecurity education. The minor will also include tracks in critical application areas within the disciplines of health care, e-business, criminal justice, and information technology. This minor will be designed using courses common at most institutions and implemented so all students across all majors can complement their undergraduate degrees with cybersecurity knowledge. (2) A library of interdisciplinary cybersecurity modules? The multidisciplinary team of industry and academic experts will design modules that target core cybersecurity issues that are pertinent to that discipline. Modules will be designed using the Security Injections@Towson framework, which has demonstrated success introducing secure coding in computer science classes. (3) An interdisciplinary cybersecurity ecosystem to build and sustain the curriculum? An ecosystem will be created to include a Cybersecurity Ambassador working with faculty fellows to champion cybersecurity education across the disciplines - health care, e-business, criminal justice, and information technology. Cyber-seminars and workshops will be held to increase faculty interest in cybersecurity, foster diverse perspectives, and promote the minor.