Curriculum Development

Innovative approaches to cybersecurity education are needed to equip professionals to be technologically skilled as well as ethically minded and capable of meeting the heavy burden of responsibility that comes with increased technological skills and access to sensitive data. To address this need, we developed a case-study-based ethics curriculum for cybersecurity.

The developed curriculum immerses students in real-life ethical dilemmas typical of those inherent to cybersecurity and engages students in open dialogue and debate within a community of ethical practice. The curriculum is designed to develop critical reasoning skills in addition to other “soft skills” vital for cybersecurity professionals.

Specific curricular objectives include:

  1. Increased awareness of the complex web of consequences that cybersecurity professionals are prone to encounter
  2. Development of critical reasoning skills that will allow students to become more sophisticated in their ethical reasoning abilities and responses
  3. Development of collaborative problem-solving and communication skills
  4. Fostering and establishing a culture of dialogue around complex ethical dimensions of cybersecurity

Curricular materials are forthcoming.