New Perspectives in Science Education

Cyber Security is a rapidly evolving area within the global technology sector. The demand for skilled professionals is growing exponentially and education and training systems need to be streamlined and targeted in order to satisfy this demand. Educating learners to ensure they have the knowledge and competencies to meet the varied work roles necessary in cyber security poses a formidable challenge.
This research will provide an overview of the two major cyber security frameworks the NIST NICE Framework and the MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base and how they can be combined in the design of higher education curricula to meet the current and future needs of the workforce.
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) created the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) framework [1] to standardise terminology and provide a common language for all people involved in cyber security work across many domains. The framework is a set of building blocks for describing the tasks, knowledge, and skills that are needed by those involved in the area of cyber security. The MITRE ATT&CK knowledge base [2] is a globally accessible knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations. The ATT&CK knowledge base is used as a foundation for the development of specific threat models and methodologies. The two frameworks will be used to design educational content which is aligned to the requirements of Industry and targeted at solving immediate gaps in the cyber security education offerings. This research is funded the CYBER-SKILLS project under the Higher Education Authority (HEA) of Ireland Human Capital Initiative (HCI) Pillar 3 scheme.