SSPSSR Reader in Sociology and Cultural Studies Dr Vince Miller is part of a team of researchers at Kent’s Institute of Cyber Security for Society (iCSS) awarded funding for a new project to understand cyber security skills development in pre-university education.
Together with Dr Virginia Franqueira and Professor Shujun Li from the School of Computing, Dr Miller will explore how cyber security skills development is currently covered in pre-university curricula in different countries and regions.
The team’s new project sits within the wider remit of cyber security research and educational activities at iCSS. Dr Miller, Dr Franqueira and Professor Li will research technical and non-technical approaches used to develop cyber security skills for different age groups up to 18, and the role of different stakeholders (eg teachers, parents, public bodies and NGOs) in such skills development activities.
The project is supported by the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise (GFCE), a multi-stakeholder community with the mission to strengthen cyber capacity and expertise globally through international collaboration. It was GFCE’s working group on “Cybersecurity Skills & Education” that identified the topic for the project as part of its Global CCB Research Agenda 2021.
Dr Franqueira said: ‘Young people are more and more connected, owning smartphones from an early age, and increasingly engaging with smart devices, online services and social media platforms. Despite the benefits derived from such accessibility to resources and friends in the cyberspace, a side effect is their increasing susceptibility to harmful content and the intrinsic difficulty to stay safe online. Therefore, it becomes paramount that young people start developing cyber security skills to raise their awareness of online risks, to build their capacity in countering those risks from young age, and to attract more young talents to pursue a cyber security career. Education at schools and pre-university colleges plays a key role, and we are very excited to have a great opportunity to enhance our understanding, through this project, about the state of development of cyber security education in the UK and worldwide.’