ARES Conference

International Workshop on Collaborative Cyber Security Education (CS-EDU 2021)

to be held in conjunction with the 16 ^th International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security
(ARES 2021 – http://www.ares-conference.eu )

August 17 – August 20, 2021

Companies and organizations 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 scene 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 panelists, the chair of the panel will guide an initial 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 17, 2021
All-Digital Conference	August 17 – August 20, 2021

Workshop CHairs

Gregor Langner, Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), Vienna, Austria

Panel on Cyber Security Education