Curricular Foundations of Cybersecurity–CALL FOR PAPERS
摘要截稿:
全文截稿: 2018-08-01
影响因子: 4.419
期刊难度:
CCF分类: 无
中科院JCR分区:
• 大类 : 计算机科学 - 4区
• 小类 : 计算机:硬件 - 4区
• 小类 : 计算机:软件工程 - 4区
Overview
Because of rapidly increasing workforce demand, cybersecurity has become a very popular topic for professional training. It is considerably less pervasive within the mainstream of the undergraduate university, where the primary objective is education rather than training. It is the compelling need for educated cybersecurity professionals that drives universities to offer educational programs in computing, business, and criminal justice that include cybersecurity content. These programs are of two types: either involving integration of cybersecurity content into existing programs or offering new degree programs entitled “cybersecurity” or something similar.
Both types of cybersecurity education are valid and have the potential to positively address the workforce demand. Regarding the integration of cybersecurity content within existing degree programs, the DHS/NSA Centers for Academic Excellence (CAE) have already had significant impact for approximately 20 years. Furthermore, Cybersecurity Curricula 2017 (CSEC2017) was recently released, providing additional guidance in integrating cybersecurity content into existing programs. Regarding the offering of new cybersecurity programs, it is unclear to what extent CAE and CSEC2017 really help in defining parameters for undergraduate programs that are simply identified as “cybersecurity,” as their focus is on the original program.
If higher education is to assume a role in educating cybersecurity professionals, well-understood curricular foundations are needed for institutions to use as models for designing and assessing programs. This includes models for integrating cybersecurity into existing disciplines and for viewing cybersecurity as its own discipline. These models must also accommodate the broad landscape that cybersecurity covers, and as such a one-size-fits-all approach is insufficient. Degree program variants of cybersecurity must be defined on overall educational objectives, and ultimately, a standard nomenclature of degree types and names needs to be developed—much like the NICE framework that provides a nomenclature of job categories on the workforce side of the equation. These program variants would share a common core, with different specializations based on discipline.
In this special issue of Computer, the guest editors seek to cover different approaches to creating effective curricular foundations for cybersecurity. Specific topics include but are not limited to the following:
- Assessment of current practices in cybersecurity undergraduate education;
- Historical surveys and evaluative comparisons among different curriculum models, as well as proposals to unify or standardize existing terminology and/or curriculum models;
- Guidance for developing standalone cybersecurity programs, or for developing programs that conform to CSEC2017 or CAE;
- Non-computing cybersecurity curricular foundations within programs; and
- Differentiating between cybersecurity curricular foundations for the high school, 2- and 4-year college, and graduate levels.