Integrating Hands-on Cybersecurity Exercises into the Curriculum in 2021

ABSTRACTThe critical shortage of cyber security professionals remains an unsolved problem. We need to greatly expand the community of faculty teaching in cybersecurity in order to meet the increasing demand for security professionals. The number of security-focused competitions and exercises has increased in recent years. As faculty we need to integrate them into our courses. Having a more unified environment and contributing to each other's educational projects will help. By bringing together new and experienced faculty we can build a community to engage in this work. We need to develop a critical mass of faculty, asking each other what we want from this learning community. As a learning community we can provide support for new members to learn about resources and help each other. These resources include exercises, webinars, and slides. We will share experiences, practices and ongoing efforts. The BoF also benefits experienced members, helping them to disseminate their work and reach other faculty with similar interests. As a community we have begun to discuss what works and what problems students and instructors have. The questions we will ask are, "What exercises have you tried? What are your experiences? What are you looking for from the community?"