Cybersecurity is a growing concern in all parts of the world, with cyberattacks happening every second and annual cybercrime damages expected to reach $6 trillion by 2021 (source: Cybersecurity Ventures). At the same time cybersecurity education is significantly lacking. "According to the 2017 Global Information Security Workforce (GISW) Study, two-thirds of its nearly 20,000 respondents indicated that their organizations lack the number of cybersecurity professionals needed for today’s threat climate" (source: "The Cybersecurity Talent Gap Is An Industry Crisis", Brian NeSmith, Forbes Technology Council). By 2021 the number of unfilled positions in the field of cybersecurity is expected to reach 3,5 million. The project's objective is to create an innovative, attractive and effective e-learning course that will teach basic cybersecurity skills to students of internal security, computer science, economics, management and law. The knowledge and skills gained will help graduates in their professional and everyday lives and significantly boost their employability. The tangible result of the project will be an open online course comprising of 6 modules with videos, interactive animations, quizzes created using state-of-the-art e-learning software. Three universities from Poland, Czech Republic and Portugal will cooperate. The main target group are the students of the aforementioned departments at these universities, whose number is expected to reach several thousand in the first year of the project results' implementation. The other beneficiaries include companies and institutions who will be able to use the results to train their employees thanks to the open online character of the course and its ability to be used as a standalone course with no further instruction necessary. The project results are only the first in an expected series of e-learning courses that will ultimately become a complete, highly specialized, innovative e-learning Master's degree in cybersecurity - the first of its kind in Europe. This is a part of a wider long-term strategy of the institutions involved.
The project's objective was to create an innovative, attractive and effective e-learning course that would teach basic cybersecurity skills to students of internal security, computer science, economics, management and other fields. The knowledge and skills gained will help graduates in their professional and everyday lives and significantly boost their employability. The tangible result of the project is an open online course comprising of 7 modules with interactive videos and animations, quizzes created using state-of-the-art e-learning software. Three universities from Poland, Czech Republic and Portugal will cooperate. The main target group are the students of these universities, whose number is expected to reach several thousand in the first year of the project results' implementation. The other beneficiaries include companies and institutions who are able to use the results to train their employees. The project results are only the first in an expected series of e-learning courses that will ultimately become a complete, highly specialized, innovative e-learning Master's degree in cybersecurity - one of the first of its kind in Europe. This is a part of a wider long-term strategy of the institutions involved.
Cybersecurity is a growing concern in all parts of the world, with cyberattacks happening every second and annual cybercrime damages are estimated to reach $10,5 trillion by 2025, according to the World Economic Forum. To put the number into perspective - if cybercrime was a country, it would be the world's third economy. At the same time cybersecurity education is significantly lacking. Over the course of the project's implementation, this situation has changed for the better, with new courses in cybersecurity opening at universities and by private education providers. However, with the ever rising threat and thus need for specialists, it did little to shorten the talent gap. To quote an article from Cybersecurity Dive (https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cybersecurity-talent-gap-worker-shortage/639724/): "The global cybersecurity workforce grew to encompass 4.7 million people, reaching its highest-ever levels, according to (ISC)2 2022 workforce study. That’s the encouraging news. However, the same study found that there is still a need for more than 3.4 million security professionals, an increase of over 26% from 2021’s numbers."