Page 31 - Cyber Defense eMagazine June 2020 Edition

International Federation for Information Processing Technical Committee on Information Security
Education (IFIP WG 11.8) was formed and published in December 2019 the Curriculum Guidelines for
Post-Secondary Degree Programs in Cybersecurity Education (more commonly known as CSEC2017).
The purpose of CSEC2017 is to provide a summary of the underlying topics that encompass eight
knowledge areas that define the boundaries of the discipline of cybersecurity. The premise of the
guideline is to provide educators an understanding of what topics should be included in cybersecurity
curriculum, a common set of outcomes, and provides adequate flexibility into how the topics are
introduced and outcomes realized.

Much like the earlier discussion related to whether organizations adopt cybersecurity industry standards,
the same is true of educational institutions. It is a growing imperative that all cybersecurity curriculum
provide greater scope of instruction into the entire body of knowledge, while providing hands-on
approaches to introduce and dive deeper into each topic. While standards and guidelines provide the
detail of what needs to be included in cybersecurity curriculum, books on NICE, such as A Guide to the
National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (2.0) and
CSEC2017 The Cybersecurity Body of Knowledge The ACM/IEEE/AIS/IFIP Recommendations for a
Complete Curriculum in Cybersecurity, have been published that provide specific examples into how they
can be implemented successfully.

Cybersecurity is not a field that should be approached carelessly. Many organizations and educational
institutions have taken that approach and failed to the extent of costing millions of dollars. In a time where
many are being forced to rethink their cybersecurity strategies as a result of COVID-19, the use of
standards and guidelines accompanied by numerous books that bring standardized topics into context,
provide the capability of implementing cybersecurity instruction and practice in a manner that will
circumvent the effect of attacks for years to come.

Cyber Defense eMagazine –June 2020 Edition 31
Copyright © 2020, Cyber Defense Magazine. All rights reserved worldwide.