International Workshop on Collaborative Cyber Security Education
to be held in conjunction with the 18 th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security
August 29 – September 01, 2023
Companies and organisations across Europe are confronted with threats from the digital space and within increasingly complex ICT environments. The deployed infrastructures need to be continuously adapted in response to changing environmental conditions, alongside new business and operational requirements. The current lack of qualified personnel in the field of cyber security, as well as the widespread fundamental lack of problem and situational awareness among employees, contributes to mounting pressure on organizations. The result is a high demand that university and college graduates be equipped with much stronger theoretical and practical competences. HEIs need to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach and enable more practical coverage of the subject via technical tools that allow them to work in secure environments to develop scenarios and collaborate on problem solving.
This symposium session is aimed at addressing the challenges of cybersecurity education from a learner and educator perspective.
An initial presentation will first set the scence by providing an overview of the current situation, with a focus on cyber security skills shortages in the European Union. It will then explain how the COLTRANE project intends to contribute to overcoming this shortage by enabling problem-based and technology supported cooperative learning. The core requirements for a suitable learning method on which to base this approach will then be introduced.
After this presentation an expert panel will look at the issue from different perspectives, including education, industry and business, technology, law and social science. Following introductory statements by the panellists, the chair of the panel will guide an intial round of discussion between them. The discussion will then be opened to questions and comments from the audience.
Background of the COLTRANE project
The workshop is organized by the ERASMUS+ project COLTRANE (Collaborative Cybersecurity Awareness Learning), which is funded by the European Commission. The project aims to enhance cybersecurity education by introducing innovative concepts in the context of collaborative awareness education. Traditional forms of education mainly focus on knowledge transmission, but in highly dynamic areas such as cybersecurity this does not lead to sufficient learning outcomes. We therefore need more innovative forms of education that aim at the development of joint action: being able to act in a variety of situations and knowing how to do this together.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
Cyber Security in Higher Education
Didactics of Cyber Security
Scenario-based Learning, Cooperative Problem Solving
Technological Infrastructures for Cyber Security Education
Important Dates
| ARES EU Symposium | August 29, 2023 |
| Conference | August 29 – September 01, 2023 |
Workshop CHairs
Gregor Langner, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Vienna, Austria
Panel on Cyber Security Education
Steve Furnell, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, United Kingdom (Chair)
Jerry Andriessen, Wise&Munroe, The Netherlands
Juha Roning, University of Oulu, Finland
Gerald Quirchmayr, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Vittorio Scarano, University of Salerno, Italy
Talk – INDUCE
Petra Kölndorfer
The INDUCE project aims to evaluate existing cyber-exercises on equal opportunities for different target groups, taking into account different diversity dimensions (e.g. gender, age and social background) and to develop, extend and adapt cyber-scenarios, algorithms and technologies. These developments are complemented by the establishment of an interdisciplinary innovation network for business, public authorities and research, thus supporting knowledge and technology transfer. Within the project, four central modules are being implemented: Opening and expansion of cyber-exercises for new target groups by means of diversity management, development of diversity-sensitive cyber-scenarios, algorithms and technologies for cyber-exercises, the establishment and promotion of an innovation network for cyber-exercises and the implementation and evaluation for different target groups with the help of Future Labs. With INDUCE, cyber security competencies for the population can be established and developed in the long term, which in the course of digitalization contribute to the empowerment of diverse target groups to act in a digital society.
Discussion on methods for assessing cybersecurity awareness
Daniel Köhler
In cybersecurity education, awareness is particularly important to prevent successful attacks against private persons or entire companies. However, assessing a state of awareness is daunting, as many assessment methods fail to adequately capture participants’ actual behavior. During the workshop, Daniel Köhler, Researcher and Educator in Cybersecurity Awareness, will guide a discussion on methods for assessing cybersecurity awareness. Participants will brainstorm, evaluate and assess possible methods to understand the problem space and derive first results towards a framework for assessment methods.