Utilizing a Virtual Internet Testbed and Private Cloud to Teach Organizational Cloud Integration

Cloud based technologies have steadily diffused into corporations, and even while educational institutions have adopted such resources to improve student experiences, little has been done to educate students on how such services are integrated into an organization. We posit that it is vital to enhance the ability of IS professionals in training to perform successfully in post academic environments that utilize cloud technologies. Unfortunately, the very nature of cloud technology requires public IP’s, DNS servers to route to external cloud resources, organizational credentials, and more. To minimize organizational overhead, we use a private cloud, existing within an Internet-Scale Event and Attack Generation Environment (ISEAGE) testbed, to mimic real-world processes required for deployment of these services. This, compared via post and pretest surveys, will be directly compared to more traditional deployment methods to view any statistical differences in the pedagogical efficacy of such an environment

This Isn’t Your Parent’s TV Show…Oh Wait, It Is

Popular conception holds that Millennials and Gen Z’ers do not like old stuff. Whether it be old games, books, technology, movies, or TV shows, the prevailing thought is that the younger generation prefers newer things. While this may be perpetuated online and in popular press, it may be less than accurate as more and more data shows these younger generations preferring older content. This research tests this assumption by tracking favorite TV shows of Millennials and Gen Z’ers over a seven-year period. Results show that these individuals actually prefer non-current TV shows and the level of “non-currentness” of their preference is growing over time providing interesting results for online content providers

Gophish: Implementing a Real-World Phishing Exercise to Teach Social Engineering

Social engineering is a large problem in our modern technological world, but while conceptually understood, it is harder to teach compared to traditional pen testing techniques. This research details a class project where students implemented a phishing exercise against real-world targets. Through cooperation with an external corporate partner, students learned the legal, technical, behavioral, analysis, and reporting aspects of social engineering. The outcome provided both usable data for a real-world corporation as well as valuable educational experience for the students

Wearables in the Workplace: Examination Using a Privacy Boundary Model

Wearable technologies have become a popular consumer product for health, entertainment, etc., but the use of such wearables in the workplace is still somewhat new. Wearables also offer the potential to provide benefits for both employer and employee in the workplace but the implementation of such technologies creates privacy implications that may affect worker attitudes. Wearable types can take many forms but this study focuses on RFID wearables due to their low cost, proven durability and reusability (Zhu & Hou, 2020). This research investigates the use of RFID wearables in the context of a corporate environment. Utilizing privacy boundary research, findings show that while being monitored negatively impacts employee satisfaction, this satisfaction further varies based on the voluntary nature of the implementation and the gender of the employee. Findings suggest that greater transparency in implementation may alleviate some of the negative aspects of implanting such technologies in the workplace

Safely Using Real-World Data for Teaching Statistics: A Comparison of Student Performance and Perceived Realism between Dataset Types

Academics strive to bring real-world experiences and examples into the classroom thereby creating a richer experience for the instructor and student. This goal of relevance is particularly challenging in the instruction of statistics where the instructor often must choose between “canned” simulated datasets that lack richness and relevance versus using their own research data. Real-world research datasets offer familiarity, storytelling opportunities, and an intimate understanding of the dataset providing a fuller understanding for the student; however, the public release of research data could be problematic. This article examines a solution that offers the richness and relevance of real-world datasets while safeguarding the integrity of the data and research. Experimental results support the use of these derived datasets

Utilizing Visualization Mechanisms to Improve User Performance during Cyber Defense Competitions

This paper describes the development of a visualization system used by students participating in a collegiate cyber defense competition and a first-pass exploratory analysis of the system. Feedback was gathered from first-time users of the system through open-ended field interviews. This initial contextual analysis examined user attitudes about appropriating a new technology in their overall competition strategy. While challenges in the data display and user interface were reported, the interviewees reported that the team and network views offered by the new visualization system enabled them to improve their performance during the competition activities

Teaching Tip: Hackalytics: Using Computer Hacking to Engage Students in Analytics

The demand for qualified analytics professionals remains high with forecasts showing a continued need over the next few years. While this demand necessitates instruction in analytics in the classroom, many students find analytics concepts to be complicated and boring. This teaching brief describes a novel approach to teaching analytics through computer hacking. Students are exposed to the entire data lifecycle by first collecting intrusion detection data through the hacking of other student machines and then utilizing simple analytics procedures to analyze this data. Qualitative results show that the students enjoy the activity both in terms of the fun of hacking their fellow classmates as well as analyzing this data in an area less utilized in analytics instruction – security analytics. Three levels of the exercise are provided as well as how-to materials for students to run the exercise