Enhancing Cybersecurity Curriculum Development: AI-Driven Mapping and Optimization Techniques

What is it about?

Cybersecurity has become important, especially during the last decade. The significant growth of information technologies, internet of things, and digitalization in general, increased the interest in cybersecurity professionals significantly. While the demand for cybersecurity professionals is high, there is a significant shortage of these professionals due to the very diverse landscape of knowledge and the complex curriculum accreditation process. In this article, we introduce a novel AI-driven mapping and optimization solution enabling cybersecurity curriculum development. Our solution leverages machine learning and integer linear programming optimization, offering an automated, intuitive, and user-friendly approach. It is designed to align with the European Cybersecurity Skills Framework (ECSF) released by the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) in 2022. Notably, our innovative mapping methodology enables the seamless adaptation of ECSF to existing curricula and addresses evolving industry needs and trend. We conduct a case study using the university curriculum from Brno University of Technology in the Czech Republic to showcase the efficacy of our approach. The results demonstrate the extent of curriculum coverage according to ECSF profiles and the optimization progress achieved through our methodology.

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Why is it important?

This paper contributes to advancing cybersecurity education by offering a systematic and data-driven approach to curriculum development that addresses evolving industry needs and trends. The main objective of this article is to enhance the development and availability of cybersecurity courses by unifying and synchronizing curriculum and training programs. This aims to provide the workforce with reliable and standardized options for upskilling and reskilling.