COVA CCI Cybersecurity Projects

Cyber Talent Aptitude

Given the challenges for finding cybersecurity talent, an effective course of action is to cultivate young professionals with the necessary competencies and aptitudes to meet the increasing demand.  An innovative approach for developing potential cybersecurity candidates is to deploy online learning curriculum that focuses on the key aptitudes for cyber roles.  Interactive online learning modules developed through FAST will address the following cybersecurity aptitudes: situational judgement, numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, error identification and attention to detail.  The online learning modules will be created and stored in a repository such as Digital ODU Commons. Access is shared across CCI, Virginia Cyber Range, Workforce Development agencies, K-12, and higher education institutions.

Cyber security Preparedness: Bridging the Workforce Gap

It is challenging to research the current state of cyber education and workforce development because there is a scarcity of quantitative assessment regarding the cognitive aptitudes, work roles, or team organization required by cybersecurity professionals to be successful. The purpose of this study is to examine the cyber security workforce, availability of training, identification of cyber aptitude and technical and people skills. According to The National Initiative for Education (NICE), cybersecurity talent gaps exist across the country. Closing these gaps requires detailed knowledge of the cybersecurity workforce. New and increasingly more complex cyber-attacks has increased demand for qualified professionals to help defend their organizations. Business leaders are not prepared to supply and train these professionals to meet the growing demand. According to the Herjavec Group (2020) publication in the annual jobs report stated that there will be a “350 percent growth in open cyber security positions from 2o13-2021”.

Cyber Gamification

Gamification is when various aspects of game playing such as rewards, badges, and competitive standing are used to enhance user engagement with a product or service. The proposed project will leverage a user-centered instructional design process to develop a mobile application that will gamify cybersecurity education and aptitude. Widespread user engagement will also be facilitated via abstraction: the process of simplifying more complicated concepts so that they can be consumed by a larger audience. The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) will initially focus on core cybersecurity concepts and leverage prior Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) research and will be supported by an interdisciplinary team of researchers. The ability to provide deeper levels of engagement as additional assessments are developed will be supported as well. While all populations can benefit from the implementation of this project, younger populations in primary, secondary and higher education are already heavy users of gamified applications and will be initially targeted. The team will use a well-established network of Virginia’s K12 school divisions and higher education institutions to facilitate initial distribution of the mobile application.