Teaching Psychological Principles to Cybersecurity Students

This paper will discuss our observations gained from teaching psychological principles and methods to undergraduate and postgraduate cybersecurity students. We will draw on and extend our previous work encouraging the teaching of psychology in computing and cybersecurity education. We pay special attention to the consideration of characteristics of cybersecurity students in terms of teaching psychology in a way that will be accessible and engaging. We then discuss the development and use of an online training tool which draws on psychology to help educators and companies to raise awareness of cybersecurity risks in students and employees. Finally, we offer some practical suggestions to incorporate psychology into the cybersecurity curriculum

Introducing Psychological Concepts and Methods to Cybersecurity Students

This chapter will begin with a brief review of the literature that highlights what psychology research and practice can offer to cybersecurity education. The authors draw on their wide-ranging inter-disciplinary teaching experience and in this chapter they discuss their observations gained from teaching psychological principles and methods to undergraduate and postgraduate cybersecurity students. The authors pay special attention to the consideration of the characteristics of cybersecurity students, so that psychology is taught in a way that is accessible and engaging. Finally, the authors offer some practical suggestions for academics to help them incorporate psychology into the cybersecurity curriculum

Preparing millennials as digital citizens and socially and environmentally responsible business professionals in a socially irresponsible climate

As of 2015, a millennial born in the 1990's became the largest population in the workplace and are still growing. Studies indicate that a millennial is tech savvy but lag in the exercise of digital responsibility. In addition, they are passive towards environmental sustainability and fail to grasp the importance of social responsibility. This paper provides a review of such findings relating to business communications educators in their classrooms. The literature should enable the development of a millennial as an excellent global citizen through business communications curricula that emphasizes digital citizenship, environmental sustainability and social responsibility. The impetus for this work is to provide guidance in the development of courses and teaching strategies customized to the development of each millennial as a digital, environmental and socially responsible global citizen

Cyber security education is as essential as “The Three R’s”

Smartphones have diffused rapidly across South African society and constitute the most dominant information and communication technologies in everyday use. That being so, it is important to ensure that all South Africans know how to secure their smart devices. This requires a high level of security awareness and knowledge. As yet, there is no formal curriculum addressing cyber security in South African schools. Indeed, it seems to be left to Universities to teach cyber security principles, and they currently only do this when students take computing-related courses. The outcome of this approach is that only a very small percentage of South Africans, i.e. those who take computing courses at University, are made aware of cyber security risks and know how to take precautions. Moreover, because this group is overwhelmingly male, this educational strategy disproportionately leaves young female South Africans vulnerable to cyber attacks. We thus contend that cyber security ought to be taught as children learn the essential “3 Rs” – delivering requisite skills at University level does not adequately prepare young South Africans for a world where cyber security is an essential skill. Starting to provide awareness and knowledge at primary school, and embedding it across the curriculum would, in addition to ensuring that people have the skills when they need them, also remove the current gender imbalance in cyber security awareness

General Education Requirements: Fontbonne Catalog, 2018-2019

This catalog reflects an institution that is devoted to upholding its new, self-identified value of the common good. The addition of the Mission Core classes and restructuring of the GERs that took place in 2015 fundamentally changed how the program worked. A system that relies on Mission core being the “heart” of the GER program with “Pillars” of knowledge supporting the “structure” of Fontbonne is an important change. The institution is now focused on bringing its own version of a liberal arts education to its students rather than a more standardized one, coming close to finalizing the vision started in the 1970s.https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/gen-ed/1004/thumbnail.jp

Teaching Tip: Hook, Line, and Sinker – The Development of a Phishing Exercise to Enhance Cybersecurity Awareness

In this paper, we describe the development of an in-class exercise designed to teach students how to craft social engineering attacks. Specifically, we focus on the development of phishing emails. Providing an opportunity to craft offensive attacks not only helps prepare students for a career in penetration testing but can also enhance their ability to detect and defend against similar methods. First, we discuss the relevant background. Second, we outline the requirements necessary to implement the exercise. Third, we describe how we implemented the exercise. Finally, we discuss our results and share student feedback

Teaching Sensitive Issues in Cyberpsychology

In contrast to the helpful sources of guidance and regulations for researchers designing and conducting experiments in cyberpsychology, there is very little guidance available for academics and teachers teaching sensitive issues related to behavior in the online world. There are many potential dangers for psychology students when learning about cyberpsychology, ranging from being exposed to upsetting or illegal behavior viewed in videos or images, to questioning their own sense of morality and understanding of self, to experiencing harassment or hacking. This paper will highlight our own experiences of teaching cyberpsychology to first and third year psychology students, highlighting some of the potential dangers. We suggest recommendations for academics to ensure that students are protected as far as is possible

Incorporating psychology into cyber security education: A pedagogical approach

The role of the human in cyber security is well acknowledged. Many cyber security incidents rely upon targets performing specific behavioural actions, such as opening a link within a phishing email. Cyber adversaries themselves are driven by psychological processes such as motivation, group dynamics and social identity. Furthermore, both intentional and unintentional insider threats are associated with a range of psychological factors, including cognitive load, mental wellbeing, trust and interpersonal relations. By incorporating psychology into cyber security education, practitioners will be better equipped with the skills they need to address cyber security issues. However, there are challenges in doing so. Psychology is a broad discipline, and many theories, approaches and methods may have little practical significance to cyber security. There is a need to sift through the literature to identify what can be applied to cyber security. There are also pedagogical differences in how psychology and cyber security are taught and also psychological differences in the types of student that may typically study psychology and cyber security. To engage with cyber security students, it is important that these differences are identified and positively addressed. Essential to this endeavor is the need to discuss and collaborate across the two disciplines. In this paper, we explore these issues and discuss our experiences as psychology and cyber security academics who work across disciplines to deliver psychology education to cyber security students, practitioners and commercial clients

Exploring Cybersecurity Education at the K-12 Level

K-12 cybersecurity education is receiving growing attention with the growing number of cyberattacks and a shortage of cybersecurity professionals. However, there are many barriers for teachers to implement effective cybersecurity education in formal classroom environments. This study conducts a systematic literature review to examine the current state-of-the-art on K-12 cybersecurity education. Through the systematic literature review, we identified 20 closely relevant papers and recognized that a well-designed curriculum in cybersecurity education at the K-12 level is strongly needed to motivate students to pursue cybersecurity pathways and careers. The challenge and suggestions of curriculum design, teaching strategy, and learning assessment are summarized and discussed