TY - JOUR
T1 - Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Specialized Curricula in Cyber Defense
AU - Armstrong, Miriam E.
AU - Jones, Keith S.
AU - Namin, Akbar Siami
AU - Newton, David C.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation under the following award numbers: DGE 1516636, DGE 1723765, and 1564293. Authors’ addresses: M. E. Armstrong, K. S. Jones, and A. S. Namin, Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409; emails: miriam.armstrong@ttu.edu, keith.s.jones@ttu.edu, akbar.namin@ttu.edu; D. C. Newton, Federal Aviation Administration & Texas Tech University, 6425 Denning Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73169; email: david.newton@ttu.edu. ACM acknowledges that this contribution was authored or co-authored by an employee, contractor, or affiliate of the United States government. As such, the United States government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free right to publish or reproduce this article, or to allow others to do so, for government purposes only. © 2020 Association for Computing Machinery. 1946-6226/2020/11-ART29 $15.00 https://doi.org/10.1145/3421254
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 ACM.
PY - 2020/11
Y1 - 2020/11
N2 - More specialized cybersecurity education programs are needed to address workforce needs, but it is unclear which knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) fulfil industry needs. We interviewed 48 professionals within four cyber defense specialty areas: (1) Cyber Network Defense Analysis, (2) Cyber Network Defense Infrastructure Support, (3) Incident Response, and (4) Vulnerability Assessment and Management. The professionals rated a number of specialized KSAs along two dimensions: how important the KSA was to their job and how difficult the KSA was to learn. Overall, communication and other non-technical skills were rated as being very important for all cyber defense jobs. Findings indicated that, for some specialty areas, technical knowledge and skills vary considerably between jobs and so the ability to teach oneself is more valuable than proficiency in any one KSA. Findings may be used to inform the development of general cybersecurity curricula, as well as curricula that focus on Cyber Network Defense Analysis, Cyber Network Defense Infrastructure Support, or Vulnerability Assessment and Management.
AB - More specialized cybersecurity education programs are needed to address workforce needs, but it is unclear which knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) fulfil industry needs. We interviewed 48 professionals within four cyber defense specialty areas: (1) Cyber Network Defense Analysis, (2) Cyber Network Defense Infrastructure Support, (3) Incident Response, and (4) Vulnerability Assessment and Management. The professionals rated a number of specialized KSAs along two dimensions: how important the KSA was to their job and how difficult the KSA was to learn. Overall, communication and other non-technical skills were rated as being very important for all cyber defense jobs. Findings indicated that, for some specialty areas, technical knowledge and skills vary considerably between jobs and so the ability to teach oneself is more valuable than proficiency in any one KSA. Findings may be used to inform the development of general cybersecurity curricula, as well as curricula that focus on Cyber Network Defense Analysis, Cyber Network Defense Infrastructure Support, or Vulnerability Assessment and Management.
KW - Cyber-defense
KW - NICE cybersecurity workforce framework
KW - curricula development
KW - cybersecurity education
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85097218373&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3421254
DO - 10.1145/3421254
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85097218373
VL - 20
JO - ACM Transactions on Computing Education
JF - ACM Transactions on Computing Education
SN - 1946-6226
IS - 4
M1 - 29
ER -