Establishment of a Mentored Cybersecurity Research Workshop for Graduate Students and Support for the Conference on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

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The goal of this project is to facilitate increased interest in cybersecurity careers and cybersecurity hygiene through a research workshop for graduate students interested in cybersecurity. To encourage participation, the project proposes to provide support to students to attend the workshop and associated Conference on Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice (CCERP). The proposed workshop will recruit recognized security research faculty to serve as mentors to selected graduate students chosen based on proposed research projects in cybersecurity. In addition, the project will support undergraduate research in Cybersecurity Hygiene by funding stipends for undergraduate students to attend the conference and conduct poster sessions. These undergraduate students will be encouraged to create and present poster sessions during the main conference day. The support provided by this grant will improve the visibility and understanding of the topic of cybersecurity hygiene as the theme of the conference and undergraduate presentations. An increase in cybersecurity professionals and an increase in cybersecurity understanding will directly and indirectly benefit society through increased information protection and privacy. The proposed improvements to the conference will directly support national efforts like the Strategic Plan for the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE), and the White House Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). The conference and proposed workshop will focus on increasing the knowledge and understanding of participants by concentrating on the need for an increased cybersecurity workforce as well as on practices used to increase awareness of recommended practices in developing curriculum for increasing awareness of cybersecurity hygiene. Also, improving the research methods of graduate students by linking them with mentors who are established researchers and offering them an exposure to an academic conference will encourage the development of future cybersecurity faculty. These activities will enable the participants to take lessons learned back to their home institution and share with colleagues and future students, improving the quality of cybersecurity education and hygiene within their institutions. The results of the conference will be disseminated through the open access publication of proceedings. Best papers of the conference will be published in the Journal of Cybersecurity Education Research and Practice (JCERP).