Cybersecurity Assessment Tools
To help universities better prepare the substantial number of cybersecurity professionals needed, we are creating infrastructure for a rigorous evidence-based improvement of cybersecurity education by developing the first Cybersecurity Assessment Tools (CATs) targeted at measuring the quality of instruction. The first CAT will be a Cybersecurity Concept Inventory (CCI)that measures how well students understand basic concepts in cybersecurity after a first course in the field. The second CAT will be a Cybersecurity Curriculum Assessment (CCA) that measures how well curricula prepared students graduating from college on fundamentals needed for careers in cybersecurity. Each CAT will be a multiple-choice test with approximately thirty questions. The project will perform psychometric evaluations of these two CATs to demonstrate their quality and value.
This project is a collaborative interdisciplinary effort by UMBC, USMA, and the University of Illinois.
Cyber Battle Lab
The Cyber Battle Lab is a joint venture with Capitol College. CISA serves as a member of the Advisory Board.
CISA members that work on this project include Alan T. Sherman.
Cyber Defense Exercises (CDX)
The CDX project is the predecessor to the Cyber Battle Lab.
Cyber defense exercises (CDXs) are hands-on information assurance exercises used in the UMBC computer science undergraduate and graduate curricula. Each exercise is organized in a flexible fashion to facilitate varied use for different courses, levels, and available time. During each exercise, students engage in structured activities using a virtual machine that is run in a lab or on a laptop from a mobile cart that can be rolled into any classroom. The virtual machines are configured to permit a student to make mistakes safely while acting as the system administrator, without adversely affecting any other users or systems.
CISA members that worked on these exercises include Richard T. Carback III.