ISEDJ

Abstract: The cybersecurity curriculum has grown dramatically over the past decade: once it was just a couple of courses in a computer science graduate program. Today cybersecurity is introduced at the high school level, incorporated into undergraduate computer science and information systems programs, and has resulted in a variety of cybersecurity-specific graduate programs. However, is that even enough? Is cybersecurity so broad that education needs to be more specialized? Employers want graduates who can hit the ground running: not in the broad field of cybersecurity but in some very specific areas. This paper is structured as follows. First, we will provide a brief overview of the current approaches to cybersecurity education including government standards bodies such as the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) framework, the upcoming changes in the National Information Assurance (IA) Education and Training Programs (NIETP) Center of Academic Excellence (CAE) designation requirements, and the Department of Labor competency model. Second, we will present a framework for curriculum changes, which we use to determine the viability of information technology/information systems (IS/IT) curriculum changes to our departmental educational offerings. We examine relationships with other departments and how cybersecurity is enhanced by other domain knowledge. Then we discuss the three specialties we plan to introduce in the cybersecurity graduate curriculum: cybersecurity data analysis, cyber intelligence, and health care information security and privacy. Finally, the future cybersecurity curriculum directions are presented and discussed.

Keywords: curriculum development, cyber intelligence, Cybersecurity, data analysis, Health Care, security and privacy

Download this article: ISEDJ - V13 N3 Page 99.pdf

Recommended Citation: Bicak, A., Liu, X., Murphy, D. (2015). Cybersecurity Curriculum Development: Introducing Specialties in a Graduate Program. Information Systems Education Journal, 13(3) pp 99-110. http://isedj.org/2015-13/ ISSN: 1545-679X. (A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2014)