Cyber workforce development using a behavioral cybersecurity paradigm

This paper contributes to the ongoing efforts in the cybersecurity community to strengthen cyber workforce development by providing an overview of key gaps and proposing practical education strategies. Leveraging documented incidents from defense, industry, and academia and the rest of the United States government, we identify emerging cyber-education opportunities highlighting human-centric elements using a gap analysis approach. We closely examine the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education’s (NICE) National Cybersecurity Workforce Framework (NCWF) as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies (NICCS) educational framework. These documents provide a foundation for current and future research with cybersecurity workforce development. Next, the paper outlines a pilot education program launched at the University of Central Florida (UCF), designed to address the unique challenges of the human dimension in cybersecurity. The purpose of highlighting this pilot program is to provide an example of human-centric cyber-educational curriculum. The present paper offers a launching point for further discussion about the human side of cybersecurity, closing with considerations of the “lessons learned” from early responses to the UCF program from the program’s inaugural student cohort.