SaTC: EDU: Vertically-Aligned Hands-on Cybersecurity Curriculum Based on Adversarial Thinking

网络安全威胁给个人、政府和行业带来了心理和经济上的损失。因此，学术机构培养一支能够应对国家日益增长的网络安全挑战的劳动力队伍至关重要。现有教材主要从原理和概念的角度来讲授网络安全。然而，开发教会学生如何像对手(攻击者)那样思考的材料是必不可少的。该项目的目标是通过发展专注于对抗思维的本科生网络安全教育实验室，解决网络安全劳动力短缺的问题，以及现有大学级别网络安全项目的空白。这三个实验模块将被设计成可堆叠和可适应的，并将向全国网络安全社区提供。该项目将开发垂直排列的本科课程，以确保材料的逻辑进展以及增加复杂性的学习目标。这些模块将结合行业最佳实践和工具，并涉及相关知识和实际操作技能，以模拟真实世界的网络问题和环境。博弈论和多角色方法将被用来帮助学生更像对手一样思考。模块材料将包含用于实验活动的虚拟机映像、包含动手实验活动的学生手册、有关如何教授实验课程的教学视频以及详细说明基本原理和说明的教师手册。此外，模块材料将包括评估指南，以评估这些活动如何提高学生的意识、采用和保留新知识。这些模块将在博伊西州立大学进行部署和评估。这些模块还将被整合到西北密苏里州立大学和伊利诺伊州立大学的网络安全课程中。这个项目得到了安全和值得信赖的网络空间(SATC)计划的支持，该计划为解决网络安全和隐私问题的提案提供资金，在这种情况下，特别是网络安全教育。SATC计划与联邦网络安全研究和发展战略计划和国家隐私研究战略保持一致，以保护和维护网络系统日益增长的社会和经济效益，同时确保安全和隐私。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Cybersecurity threats take a psychological and financial toll on individuals, governments, and industry. Therefore, it is critical that academic institutions produce a workforce capable of handling the nation’s increasing cybersecurity challenges. Existing educational materials focus mainly on teaching cybersecurity from the perspective of principles and concepts. However, it is essential to develop materials that teach students how to think like an adversary (attacker). The goal of this project is to address the cybersecurity workforce shortage as well as gaps in available university-level cybersecurity programs through the development of undergraduate cybersecurity education labs focused on adversarial thinking. The three lab modules will be designed to be stackable and adaptable and will be made available to the cybersecurity community nationwide.The project will develop a vertically-aligned undergraduate curriculum that ensures a logical progression of materials as well as learning objectives that increase in complexity. The modules will incorporate industry best practices and tools, and address both relevant knowledge and hands-on practical skills to simulate real-world cyber problems and environments. Game-theoretical and multi-role approaches will be used to help students think more like an adversary. Module materials will incorporate virtual machine images for lab activities, a student manual with hands-on lab activities, instructional videos on how to deliver the lab lessons, and an instructor’s manual with detailed rationale and instructions. In addition, the module materials will include an assessment guide to evaluate how the activities increase student awareness, adoption, and retention of new knowledge. The modules will be deployed and evaluated at Boise State University. The modules will also be integrated into cybersecurity courses at Northwest Missouri State University and Illinois State University. This project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case specifically cybersecurity education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.